An internal review has revealed that the Metropolitan Police failed to carry out necessary vetting on thousands of officers and staff between 2013 and 2023, allowing serial rapists such as David Carrick to remain in the force. The Home Office stated that the Met estimates more than 5,000 officers and staff were recruited without proper checks, and it cannot confirm whether pre-employment checks were carried out on around 17,000 individuals.
The review found that 1,400 officers who should have been flagged by vetting were left with police powers, and 131 officers committed criminal or misconduct offences, including rape, drug offences, and hate crimes. Among those who joined or stayed due to defective vetting was Cliff Mitchell, hired despite an unproven child rape allegation and later convicted of ten counts of rape.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood called the abandonment of vetting checks “a dereliction of the Met’s duty to keep London safe” and commissioned an inspection of the force’s recruitment and vetting practices. David Carrick, one of the worst sex offenders in modern history, joined the Met in 2001, passed vetting in 2017 despite complaints, and was later jailed for 48 rapes. He was convicted of 85 offences, many after 2017.
The report said the Met was under pressure to recruit quickly during a government programme to hire 20,000 officers between 2020 and 2023. The error was noticed because the refusal rate for applicants was lower than historical averages. The Met confirmed that some of those who took the decisions are still employed, but standards have since been raised, with 1,500 officers ousted since Sir Mark Rowley became commissioner in 2022.
