David Carrick’s prison sentence is likely to be reviewed after the Attorney General was inundated with complaints that it was too lenient. The 48-year-old Metropolitan Police officer was given 36 life sentences at Southwark Crown Court and told he would not be eligible to apply for parole for 30 years, by which time he will be 78.
However, hours after the sentencing hearing, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office confirmed that the case was being looked at again under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
His sentencing followed his guilty pleas to 49 charges committed against 12 women over a span of 17 years.
The judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, said that because Carrick was a police officer she had considered handing him a whole-life term but had ultimately decided the case did not meet the “wholly exceptional circumstances” needed to justify such an order.
Following a stream of complaints about the perceived leniency of the sentence, which could mean Carrick is released while he is in his 70s, the Attorney General’s Office said the case would be reviewed.
A spokesman said: “We can confirm we have received multiple requests relating to David Carrick’s sentence under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
“The case will of course be considered for referral to The Court of Appeal.
“The Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme allows prosecutors, victims of crime and their families and members of the public to ask for certain Crown Court sentences to be reviewed by the law officers if they think the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in circumstances of the offence.”
Of those cases referred to the Court of Appeal, 70 percent have the sentence increased.
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Hertfordshire Police have set up a special portal to encourage other potential victims of Carrick to come forward.
Det Insp Iain Moor said: “As a serving police officer he has brought shame on the profession and was not fit to wear the uniform, but I hope that our determination to get justice for the victims in this case will go some way to reassuring the public that nobody is above the law and we will bring people like David Carrick to justice.”
*This story has not been edited by The Infallible staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.
