A police officer raped by David Carrick has called for Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to resign after receiving a six-figure settlement from the force. Linda Williams, 60, who has waived her right to anonymity, was attacked by Carrick in 2004. Carrick, 51, a former armed officer in the Met, is serving 37 life sentences for attacking more than a dozen women.
Settlement and Treatment
Ms Williams has described the way she was treated by the Met throughout her legal claim as "devastating" and says it nearly drove her to suicide. Her case has been settled for an undisclosed six-figure sum without the force admitting liability.
She said: "The whole process has taken me right back to how I felt when I was raped by Carrick, controlled, abused and powerless. If I was raped tomorrow, I wouldn't report it. Both the criminal justice process and the civil process have been so traumatic."
Criticism of the Met
Ms Williams, from Hertfordshire, alleged it was "the Met's fault" that she could not report the rape in 2004, and that "little had changed" in the culture since then. She said the force was "like an episode of Life On Mars" and that she would have been "the officer who alleged I had been raped by a fellow officer."
She reported the attack in 2021 and said she has had no relationships since the attack 22 years ago. "After the attack, I couldn't face the thought of being with a man or even having somebody in my home," she said. "Carrick stole the future that I wanted."
Call for Change
Ms Williams now wants changes to support systems in the Met, including a unit overseen by victims. She said: "Mark Rowley will say they are doing everything they can to stop violence against women and girls, I disagree. The Met need to set up a unit overseen by victims like me who understand what it is like to be raped. For this to happen Rowley needs to go and we need a new commissioner."
Sophie Bullimore, a solicitor from Penningtons Manches Cooper who represented Ms Williams, said her client has shown "incredible strength" but that "more than 20 years after the attack, the impact on her mental health and daily living is still stark."
Carrick's Offences and Met Response
In 2022 and 2023, Carrick pleaded guilty to 71 sexual offences, including 48 rapes against 12 other women over 17 years. In November last year, he was convicted of molesting a 12-year-old child in the late 1980s and repeatedly raping and abusing a female ex-partner.
A Met Police spokesperson said: "David Carrick was responsible for the most appalling offences and as we have said previously, we are truly sorry for the harm and suffering he caused his victims. He should never have been a police officer. Serious flaws in the way we approached such investigations at the time meant we did not spot his pattern of abusive behaviour."
The spokesperson added that the Commissioner has previously met with DC Williams and spoken to her via email on multiple occasions, and has contacted her to ask whether she would be willing to meet again to further discuss these issues in person.
