Woman alleges sex abuse by former police officer

Ex-Met Police officer David Carrick denies several counts of sexual assault, rape and coercive and controlling behaviour

A tearful woman has told a court she was left traumatised after she was allegedly sexually abused by a former police officer when she was a child.

David Carrick, 50, from Stevenage, is accused of carrying out the offences as a teenager in the late 1980s, when the victim was aged between 12 and 14.

It is also alleged that, more than 20 years later, he raped a woman "on a number of occasions" and subjected her to a non-consensual sex act during a "toxic relationship", a jury at the Old Bailey heard.

Mr Carrick denies several charges of sexual assault, rape and coercive and controlling behaviour.

The first complainant, now an adult, cried as she was cross-examined on details of the alleged assaults.

She said she had been traumatised and told jurors: "When I heard he was a Metropolitan Police officer, the words I have always used were: 'God help anyone with him with a warrant card'."

She repeatedly denied making up the allegations and insisted: "I wouldn't be here for no reason."

When asked about submitting a compensation claim, she said: "I never got any compensation.

"I have done this knowing I am not going to get any compensation. I'm still doing this knowing I'm not getting compensation."

Mr Carrick is being tried at the Old Bailey, also known as the Central Criminal Court, in London

Jurors were told by the prosecution that Mr Carrick would put his hand over the girl's mouth to prevent her screaming and that, on one occasion, she found herself "trapped" between a chair and a sofa.

The girl allegedly told her mother what was going on when she was 14.

The defendant allegedly made admissions about what he had done to the girl in a letter recovered from his medical records and signed "Dave".

In it, Mr Carrick wrote that the girl was "not crazy" and that it was "true" - but that he had stopped about four months previously.

Questioned on whether she had invented the allegations, the now-adult complainant told the court: "I'm just not sure why he would have left a note admitting it then."

During a police interview regarding the allegations, Mr Carrick claimed the girl was a liar and denied there had been any sexual abuse, jurors were told.

The court heard previously that Mr Carrick was already a convicted sex offender.

In 2022 and 2023, he pleaded guilty to a "large number" of sexual and other offences relating to a significant number of other women, nearly all of whom he knew, prosecutor Tom Little KC told the jury.

They included no less than 71 instances of sexual violence against 12 different women over a period spanning 17 years, Mr Little said.

Mr Carrick has denied five counts of sexual assault relating to the girl in 1989 and 1990.

He has also pleaded not guilty to two charges of rape, one of sexual assault and coercive and controlling behaviour towards the woman, between 2014 and 2019.

Neither of the alleged victims in the case can be identified for legal reasons.