London’s Metropolitan Police force has dismissed officer David Carrick after he admitted to a litany of sexual attacks on women in a case that has sparked calls for an inquiry into the United Kingdom’s largest police service.
Carrick has admitted to 49 offenses, including 24 counts of rape, over an 18-year period.
He was dismissed during a misconduct hearing on Tuesday morning, a press officer for the Met Police told CNN, adding that Carrick himself did not attend or have any legal representation at the hearing.
Word of Carrick’s offenses sent shockwaves throughout the country on Monday, with women’s rights groups criticizing the Met Police’s failure to intervene at an earlier date.
“This is an institution in crisis. That Carrick’s pattern of egregious behaviour was known to the Met and they failed to act speaks more loudly than their empty promises to women,” UK organization End Violence Against Women tweeted.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said someone like Carrick “should never have been a police officer,” according to a readout of the Cabinet meeting Tuesday.
Sunak acknowledged that the case has undermined “public confidence in the police” and stressed the need for “real change quickly.”
The prime minister called on the police force to “address the failings” that took place in the case and strive to “do everything possible to ensure women and girls are safe in their communities and homes,” the readout added.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley issued an apology to Carrick’s victims Monday, acknowledging that the force had let them down.
“I do understand that this will lead to some women across London questioning whether they can trust the Met to keep them safe. We have failed,” Rowley said in a clip posted on the Met Police official Twitter account.
A series of scandals in recent years has eroded public confidence in the force and prompted former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick to resign from her post in 2022.
The force is now investigating as many as 1,000 sex offenses and domestic abuse claims involving approximately 800 of its officers, Rowley admitted Monday.
“We are going to turn all those stones over, we’re going to come to the right conclusions and we’ll be ruthless about rooting out those who corrupt our integrity. You have my absolute assurance on that,” he said in an interview with UK media.
CNN’s Eve Brennan, Alex Hardie and Sana Noor Haq contributed reporting.
