Jenrick backs efforts to strip serial rapist David Carrick of police pension | UK news

The Home Office minister Robert Jenrick has said serial rapist David Carrick should be stripped of his police pension.

Jenrick said the government supported efforts by the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, to remove the former Metropolitan police officer of his pension.

“The forfeiture of the pension is a matter for the mayor of London but we support his efforts to remove that pension, if indeed that is what he chooses to do,” Jenrick told Sky News. “This is one of the most egregious cases of police misconduct in the history of the Met, perhaps in the history of British policing. This disgusting individual should not benefit from his years serving in the Metropolitan police.”

Home Office guidelines say forfeiture applications to remove a police pension can be made when an officer has been convicted of a criminal offence committed in connection with their service which leads to a serious loss of confidence in policing, but not if crimes are committed while an officer is off-duty. Freedom of information data shows that only 42 applications for forfeiture of police pensions were approved in the five years to November 2022.

Dame Vera Baird, a former victims’ commissioner, said it would be “appropriate to take a pension pot away from such a serious offender”, adding: “What does it matter if he was on duty or not? I hope his victims will be compensated without having to go to court.”

The police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, said it has no plans to investigate how Carrick went undetected, but the Metropolitan police and the government are coming under pressure to punish officers who allowed Carrick to be shielded from the sack despite multiple warnings about his abuse. The failure to remove him would also be part of the Angiolini inquiry already examining how another serving officer was able to abduct, rape and murder Sarah Everard.

Jenrick said there “now needs to be a very detailed investigation as to exactly what happened and who might have known about this during his years of service”.

“Mark Rowley, who’s leading the Metropolitan police is focused on that,” he told Sky. “The home secretary has met with him to get explicit assurances that he will be working now intensively to understand the events, how this could possibly have happened for such a prolonged period of time and what we can do to make sure it never happens again.”