London Police Officer David Carrick in diplomatic unit charged with rape days after Wayne Couzens’ conviction

A London police officer from the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command has been charged with rape, Metropolitan Police said on Sunday. David Carrick, 46, of Stevenage, was arrested in Hertfordshire over the weekend on one count of rape, after an alleged attack on a woman in early September last year. He was suspended from the Met, the force said. The case “deeply concerned” by Commissioner Cressida Dick, she told a local media outlet, and she said she “fully recognizes that the public would also be very concerned”. Carrick will appear in court on Monday.

The arrest came just days after Wayne Couzens, the officer who kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard earlier this year, was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. The case sent shockwaves across England and sparked widespread protests. Metropolitan Police said they had been “sickened, angry and devastated” by the crime and offered unnecessary advice to women seeking protection from a similar fate. The advice included “challenging” the police by asking “search questions”, flagging a bus, fleeing the officer and asking passers-by for help.