Pictured: Cupboard where rapist police officer David Carrick kept victims

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

Pictures of the cupboard where serial rapist David Carrick abused two of his victims were shown to a court today as the former Metropolitan Police officer’s sentencing hearing began.

Carrick, 48, was accused of 85 offences in total, including more than 20 rapes against 12 victims between 2003 and 2020 while he was a serving officer in an elite and armed unit of the Met.

Two women were kept in a small cupboard under the stairs at Carrick’s home in Hertfordshire - one 10 times - while others were urinated on or attacked with a belt.

Images submitted to the court showed the cupboard, which was only about 3 or 4ft high and a few feet wide.

In the case of one of Carrick’s victims, the former Met Police officer locked her in the cupboard for ordering a jumper he did not give her permission to purchase.

As a punishment, he locked her in the cupboard naked and would not let her out even when she began having a panic attack.

The court heard he refused and would instead “stand outside and whistle.”

Carrick, now one of the UK’s known prolific sex offenders, previously pleaded guilty to 48 of the offences.

He used his “power and control” to carry out a “catalogue of violent and brutal” sex attacks, the court heard.

Opening the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Tom Little KC described Carrick’s offending as “systematic”.

“It was a catalogue of violent and sexual offences perpetrated on multiple victims, whether he was in a controlling or coercive relationship with them or not or even if it was just a single occasion,” he told the court.

Mr Little said it did not matter to Carrick who the woman was, adding: “The reality was, if he had the opportunity, he would rape them, sexually abuse or assault them and/or humiliate them.”

The prosecutor told the court the women were "vulnerable", with some "appreciably older or younger than him".

Carrick’s offending increased in frequency, with “an increasing level of humiliation being inflicted”, Mr Little said.

Carrick, who joined the Met in 2001 before becoming an armed officer with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command in 2009, is being sentenced over two days.

His offending increased in frequency, with "an increasing level of humiliation being inflicted", Mr Little said.

He relied on his "charm" to "beguile and mislead" his victims and would use his "power and control" - in part because of his status as a police officer - to stop them leaving or reporting him, the court also heard.

Carrick, who served in the army before joining the Met, previously pleaded guilty to 49 charges relating to a dozen women.

Some are multiple-incident counts, meaning they relate to at least 85 separate offences, including at least 71 sexual offences and 48 rapes.

The charges include 24 counts of rape, nine counts of sexual assault, five counts of assault by penetration, three counts of coercive and controlling behaviour, three counts of false imprisonment, two counts of attempted rape, one count of attempted sexual assault by penetration, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and one count of indecent assault.

The public gallery in the large courtroom was completely full before prosecutor Tom Little KC began opening the case.

Wearing a black suit, Carrick was flanked by three dock officers before proceedings started on Monday.