24 episodes of rape against at least 12 women , various sexual assaults and harassments.

These would be just some of the charges hanging over the head of 48-year-old Scotland Yard investigator David Carrick , who has been in service for almost 20 years. What is investing the Metropolitan Police of London - the main investigative center of the United Kingdom - is undoubtedly an unprecedented scandal, in terms of number and seriousness of crimes committed by a man in uniform who has long played the role of serial rapist. The negligence of those who should have denounced his actions from within the ranks and instead ignored signs and suspicions that emerged over time would also cause discussion.

Carrick was arrested in 2021 on serious suspicions of sexual abuse perpetrated under the cover of a uniform. He pleaded guilty before a court of as many as 49 counts . The disputed facts refer to a period of time between 2000 and 2021 . A case for which the heads of the department - starting with the new boss Mark Rowley - have sprinkled their heads in ashes, promising to bring about a change of pace, not without admitting the failure of the control systems on Carrick and publicly apologizing for the uncollected decades-old warning signs about his behaviors.

Rowley let the BBC know that internal disciplinary investigations are currently open on 1,000 reports of suspected sexual or domestic abuse raised on as many as 800 agents: "This time there will be no discounts for anyone , in cases of proven guilt". "This man - echoed the crown prosecutor, Jaswant Narwal referring to the investigator - played a role in which he was responsible for protecting the public , but in his private life he did exactly the opposite : degrading, belittling, assaulting and raping various women, in a crescendo of crimes that got worse and worse as impunity made him bolder".

The story recalls that of Wayne Couzens , a former agent on duty in the special unit called upon to protect the palaces of political power and diplomatic offices in London, sentenced last year to life imprisonment after being the protagonist of one of the most damaging feminicides shocked the British capital and made women outraged: the killing in March 2021 of Sarah Everard , stopped with the staging of a false arrest for phantom violations of the Covid restrictions then in force, then tied up, kidnapped, raped and ferociously massacred.

(Unioneonline/vf)

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