“Oh my God. Oh my God!” That’s what I exclaimed when I saw this headline.

It turns out to be another policing horror story that is chilling to read. (Trigger warning for those with a trauma history.)

As if Wayne Couzens wasn’t enough yet.

In case you don’t know that, Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens abducted, raped and killed Sarah Everard in 2021.

He was suspended and arrested in October 2021.

David Carrick ended up in the same unit as Wayne Couzens, namely the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command, guarding embassies, Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament.

“Wayne Couzens, 48, worked in the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command and finished a shift guarding the US embassy hours before he carried out a false arrest of Everard on 3 March and abducted her.” (Source: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/03/sarah-everard-killer-wayne-couzens-worked-as-parliamentary-guard)

“Alarm bells also failed to ring within the force, which promoted Carrick in 2009 from patrolling the streets to being a member of an elite armed unit, the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command, guarding embassies, Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament.” (Source: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/16/metropolitan-police-officer-david-carrick-revealed-as-serial-rapist)

A quote from within the CPS: “scale of the degradation Carrick subjected his victims to is unlike anything I’ve encountered in my 34 years with the Crown Prosecution Service”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-64289461

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Now imagine that you’re a woman in London and you’re being stalked or have been raped. Would you still report this to the Met, already knowing that the police in England have admitted that they fail stalking victims as a rule and that police officers also often give rape victims a hard time?