David Carrick Victim Linda Williams: Met Detective Raped by Serial Predator Demands Mark Rowley Resign

Photo: Ian S, via Geograph Britain and Ireland / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) — police cars at New Scotland Yard (illustrative; not the individuals named)

Some interviews land like a punch. Linda Williams, a 60-year-old detective constable from Hertfordshire, waived her right to anonymity to tell the BBC what happened after she was raped by a fellow Metropolitan Police officer — and she did not hold back. Her message was aimed squarely at the top of the force: she is calling on Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to resign.

Williams was attacked by David Carrick in 2004 but did not report the assault until 2021. She later brought a civil claim against the Met, arguing the force failed to protect her from a serial offender and created an environment in which she felt unable to come forward. That case has now been settled for an undisclosed six-figure sum, without the force admitting liability. But it is the way the Met handled the legal claim — not just the attack itself — that has driven her to speak out now.

Linda Williams David Carrick: "like being raped all over again"

"The process has taken me right back to how I felt when I was raped by Carrick: controlled, abused and powerless," Williams said. She described the years-long legal fight as so devastating that it drove her to contemplate suicide. "If I was raped tomorrow, I wouldn't report it," she said — a sentence that ought to stop anyone in law enforcement cold.

Williams worked as a sexual offences officer herself, supporting victims of rape. Yet despite that inside knowledge of the system, she said the complete lack of empathy and support she experienced meant she would not trust the police with her own case today. During the civil proceedings, she said the Met's legal team used the fact that she had carried on with her life against her — "I was an exemplary officer and continued to perform well at work, and they relied on that to suggest I had shown no signs of psychological trauma." In her assessment, the trauma she carries is "90% down to the Met police, 10% to Carrick". "As far as I am concerned, it is Mark Rowley, the Commissioner, saying these terrible things as he was the defendant in the case," she said.

Met chief Mark Rowley resign call: force responds

Williams has not only demanded Rowley's departure; she has called for the Met to set up a dedicated support unit overseen by victims themselves — people who, as she puts it, understand what it is like to be raped. "For this to happen, Rowley needs to go," she said. She added that little had changed in the force's culture since the attack, describing it as being "like an episode of Life On Mars" — the drama set in a fictional 1970s police station.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the force was "truly sorry for the harm and suffering" Carrick caused, and acknowledged "serious flaws" in how such investigations were approached at the time, which meant his pattern of abusive behaviour was not spotted. The spokesperson said the force had "tried to reduce further distress and re-traumatisation" to Williams and aimed to deal with her claims as quickly and compassionately as possible — and that the Commissioner had met Williams in person, contacted her by email on multiple occasions, and asked whether she would be willing to meet again.

That will not satisfy Williams — and, I suspect, it will not satisfy many who watched the Carrick scandal unfold. Carrick, a former armed officer, is serving 37 life sentences after admitting 71 sexual offences, including 48 rapes against 12 women, between 2022 and 2023. When the question is whether the culture that allowed him to operate has really changed, the testimony of a detective who lived through both the crime and the institution's response to it carries a weight that no press statement can match. Whether Sir Mark Rowley survives this call for his resignation remains to be seen — but the pressure is now undeniably public, and it is personal.

No video of the interview is publicly available on an official outlet channel at the time of writing.

Sources

• The Sun — Police officer raped by serial predator David Carrick calls for Met chief to quit after ordeal left her 'suicidal'
• Hello Rayo — Hertfordshire officer raped by David Carrick calls for Met commissioner to resign
• IBTimes — David Carrick victim demands Met chief Mark Rowley's resignation