Met rapist David Carrick’s ‘lenient’ sentence to be reviewed after Attorney General besieged with complaints
8 February 2023, 09:55 | Updated: 8 February 2023, 10:49
Convicted Met Police rapist David Carrick is to have his ‘lenient’ sentence reviewed after the Attorney General was besieged with complaints following his sentencing.
Carrick, 48, pleaded guilty to 85 offences against dozens of women over a 17-year period and is now regarded as one of the UK's most prolific sex offenders.
Carrick will now serve 36 life sentences - equating to a minimum 30 years in prison - following judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb sentencing, meaning he will be 78 before he's eligible for parole.
However, hours after his jail term was announced, the Attorney General, who is the chief legal adviser to the Crown, was inundated with complaints
A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office has since confirmed that the case is now being reviewed under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
It follows LBC reporter Charlotte Lynch's investigation into whether women feel safe in London in the wake of a string of convictions against serving police officers.
Speaking to Nick Ferrari at Breakfast following the sentencing, one caller, who was a victim of rape, said "rape should be up there with murder" in terms of the length of prison sentence.
At the time of the verdict, Justice Cheema-Grubb said that because Carrick was a police officer, she had considered handing him a whole-life term, but had ultimately decided the case did not meet the “wholly exceptional circumstances” needed to justify such an order.
The moment David Carrick was arrested
With extracts from the 12 victims' impact statements read out during the hearing, the court heard how one had "encountered evil" upon meeting Carrick, while another victim had felt "lost" for the last 19 years since his attack.
It follows Rishi Sunak's pledge to make women’s safety a key issue as part of his premiership, saying women "deserve to feel safe”.
