Two Wiltshire police officers who ‘missed opportunity’ to investigate serial rapist – Met cop given final warning

Two Wiltshire Police officers have been given a final written warning after failing to properly investigate an allegation of abuse against serial rapist and former police officer David Carrick.

Inspector David Tippetts and PC Emma Fisher faced a disciplinary hearing following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

The couple has denied the abuse allegations against Carrick five years before the former Metropolitan Police firearms officer was first arrested.

A woman called Wiltshire In January 2016, police reported that Carrick had abused another woman.

She wanted an investigation to be carried out against the police officer who was on duty at the time.

The case was assigned to PC Fisher, who after speaking to the woman who wrote the report, requested that the case be dismissed before even speaking to the alleged victim.

Her superior, Inspector Tippetts, then a sergeant, agreed.

PC Fisher updated the police computer system and said the woman had said the case had been previously investigated, but there was no record of a previous investigation in Wiltshire’s computer system.

If either PC Fisher or Inspector Tippetts had searched the police systems, they would have found that Carrick was already under investigation in connection with another case which had been reported to the police three days earlier.

But none of the officers checked police systems or took further steps to investigate the matter, and the woman who reported the allegations was never contacted by them again.

Despite being aware that Carrick was an active police officer, neither PC Fisher nor Inspector Tippetts notified the Metropolitan Police or their own Directorate of Professional Standards.

More on the Carrick case:
Timeline of missed opportunities

The IOPC investigation began in July 2023 and lasted until January 2024.

She sought the expertise of a senior detective at Wiltshire Police who had no knowledge of the case and said officers could have been expected to have investigated the case more adequately.

They added that normally the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) would have been informed of the allegation so that its investigators could investigate the matter and speak to the alleged victim if necessary.

Both officers expressed remorse and confessed to the incident at the beginning of the investigation.

“The blame lies with no one but Carrick – but the opportunity was missed”

IOPC regional director Mel Palmer said: “No one but David Carrick is to blame for this series of appalling crimes.”

“However, our investigation found that Wiltshire Police officers had missed an opportunity to investigate him following a report of serious allegations of abuse years before his final arrest.

“PC Fisher took minimal investigative action. She made no attempt to contact the victim of the reported crime, notify the police of a serious allegation against one of their officers or search Wiltshire Police’s systems for David Carrick’s name.”

The IOPC added: “PC Fisher requested that the investigation be closed after minimal effort and her supervisor, PS Tippetts, agreed and failed – contrary to police policy – to raise any concerns with colleagues in CID who specialise in investigating serious allegations.”

In February 2023, Carrick was sentenced to a minimum term of 30 years in prison for 49 violent and sexual crimes, including 24 cases of rape.

The former police officer abused his position of power to torture various women.

He joined the police in 2001 before becoming an armed officer in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Unit in 2009.

However, there were a number of “systematic failures” in his case.

He joined the Met despite previous allegations and was the subject of complaints five times between 2002 and 2008.

Carrick passed the firearms officer exam in 2009, despite a domestic incident in 2004, and was arrested in January 2021 on suspicion of rape.

The Met itself admitted that inadequate intelligence checks were carried out in his case.

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“A clear case of failure”

Both officers, from Wiltshire, were referred to court for gross misconduct for possible breaches of standards of police professional conduct.

The panel concluded that both officers had violated standards of conduct relating to duties and responsibilities and behaved dishonorably and that their actions constituted misconduct.

They issued both officers with final written warnings, which will be valid for a period of two years.

Craig Dibdin, assistant chief constable of Wiltshire Police, said: “This is a clear case of officers failing, in the most fundamental sense, to properly investigate the allegations made against them.”

“This lack of service was exacerbated by the lack of adequate supervision and control by a supervisor.”

He added: “I would like to apologise unreservedly to the individual whose report we did not initially investigate as intended.

“We will ensure that we share any learnings from this case at an organisational level to improve the service we provide.”