A serving Metropolitan Police armed officer from Stevenage has admitted more than 80 sex offences including 48 rapes.

David Carrick, 48, who lived in Stevenage, met a number of his victims through dating websites, pleaded guilty to 49 offences, spanning across two decades.

Serial rapist Carrick used his role to put fear into his victims admitted dozens of rape and sexual offences against 12 women. 

Carrick, a firearms officer in the Met's Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, pleaded guilty to further offences including sexual assault, false imprisonment, coercive control and assault by penetration.

His offences spanned 2003 to 2020, with many sexual offences taking place across Hertfordshire, where he would control what the women wore, what they ate and where they slept. The abuser even prevented victims from speaking to their own children. 

Carrick also control how long victims slept for, even insisting women were only allowed to eat a piece of apple at a certain time of day. He would also force them to clean the house while naked and at times would lock terrified victims in a cupboard.

When Carrick was arrested at his home in Stevenage, he told detectives 'not again', as it was the eighth time in a decade police had been alerted to his predatory behaviour.

Jaswant Narwal, the chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Carrick held a role where he was trusted with the responsibility of protecting the public, but yet over 17 years, in his private life, he did the exact opposite.

"This is a man who relentlessly degraded, belittled and sexually assaulted and raped women. 

"As time went on, the severity of his offending intensified as he became emboldened, thinking he would get away with it."

The Met has apologised after it emerged he had come to the attention of police over nine incidents, including rape allegations, between 2000 and 2021.

Somehow, Carrick - who was nicknamed 'Bastard Dave' by colleagues - slipped through the net and was allowed to continue working despite the Met and three other forces received at least 14 complaints about the serving officer, including allegations of rape.

Sexual predator Carrick served as a policeman as recently as July 2021 before being arrested for rape, before being suspended three months later, when charged over another attack.

Even in the aftermath of Sarah Everard's murder at the hands of serving officer Wayne Couzens, still the Met failed to act on red flags.

Carrick's case revealed an abject failing in police vetting in bringing sexual predators and misogynistic office to justice.

A senior officer said his offending was "unprecedented in policing".

Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray, the Met's lead for professionalism, said: "We should have spotted his pattern of abusive behaviour and because we didn't, we missed opportunities to remove him from the organisation.

"We are truly sorry that being able to continue to use his role as a police officer may have prolonged the suffering of his victims.

"We know they felt unable to come forward sooner because he told them they would not be believed."

Carrick, who admitted 24 counts of rape, was finally suspended from duty when he was arrested in October 2021.