Detective raped by Met colleague condemns force’s handling of civil claim

Detective Constable Linda Williams has waived her right to anonymity to speak about being raped by former Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick and about her subsequent civil claim against the force. She says the way the Met handled that claim felt “like being raped all over again”. The case has been settled for an undisclosed six-figure sum without the Met admitting liability.

Carrick raped Williams in 2004. She reported the attack in 2021 and says she had feared that accusing a fellow officer earlier would end her career. Carrick was sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2023 for offences against Williams and 11 other women.

Williams told the BBC that the civil proceedings left her feeling suicidal. She says the Met’s lawyers used her continued strong performance at work to suggest she had shown no signs of psychological trauma. Her solicitor, Sophie Bullimore, says describing the rape as a single incident failed to reflect its lasting effects on Williams’s life.

The BBC says it saw a Met document sent to Williams that called the fact that the abuse was “isolated to a single episode” a key factor in assessing damages. It also argued that, for at least 15 years after the rape, the psychological harm had not significantly affected her day-to-day life.

The Met gave The Eye of Media a more specific response about the medical evidence: it said it accepted the findings of the expert Williams had instructed for her claim and had not challenged the expert’s diagnosis or opinion on the severity of her condition. That does not resolve how the arguments reported by the BBC about damages and daily functioning fitted with the expert’s opinion.

The force says it tried to minimise further distress and handle Williams’s claim quickly and compassionately. Williams is calling for Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to resign, saying she no longer trusts the Met to deal properly with cases like hers. The Met says Rowley has met her before and has asked to meet her again.