Detective raped by Met colleague says force's handling of her civil case was 'like being raped all over again'

Det Con Linda Williams, a serving Metropolitan Police detective, says the way the force handled her civil claim over her rape was "like being raped all over again." She has given up her legal anonymity to say so to the BBC. She is also doing something no serving officer has done before: publicly calling for Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to resign.

Williams, now 60, was raped in 2004 by PC David Carrick. In 2023 he was jailed for life for sexual offences against her and 11 other women. She has post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the attack. She sued the Met for damages, arguing the force failed to protect her from Carrick and that she had been unable to report the rape. The case ran for four years and left her feeling suicidal, she says. It has now been settled, and the Met has paid her compensation without accepting liability.

The worst moment, she says, came when lawyers acting for the commissioner challenged how severe her PTSD was, on the basis that she had been raped only once. "I don't know how many times you have to be raped to have severe PTSD," she says. The BBC has seen a Met document sent to her which describes a key factor in assessing damages as the "abuse itself was isolated to a single episode." The same document argued that for at least 15 years after the rape, her psychological harm was not significant enough to affect her day to day. She says lawyers also pointed to her record as an exemplary officer who kept performing well as a sign she had shown no trauma, which she says misunderstands how trauma shows itself. She wept, and felt she was being called a liar. Her solicitor, Sophie Bullimore of Penningtons Manches Cooper, says seeing the rape reduced on paper to a single isolated event, when it has affected every part of her life, shows the matter needs to be handled with more care.

The attack happened while Williams was on a three-month attachment with Carrick in south London, far from where she normally worked. One night he suggested she stay at his home so she would not have to drive late and return early. He then raped her. She says that when she told him no, he replied: "It's what I do. I'm going to carry on." She did not fight back because she believed he would become violent. Afterwards she says she "never told a soul."

She says the culture of the Met kept her silent for years. Reporting would have ended her career, she believes: Carrick probably would have been interviewed and then faced no further action, leaving her as the officer who alleged rape. She describes a "very sexist" environment in which her forehead was stamped with the words "Property of the Met" and she was locked in the boot of a police car for a whole shift. Williams was herself a rape investigation officer in the early 2000s. "I supported victims through rape but didn't report myself. I think that says loads," she says.

In the end she came forward in 2021, after seeing news coverage that Carrick had been charged with raping another woman. She reported to Hertfordshire Police, which investigated and brought him to justice. She says she would not report a rape to the Met today because she has no faith the force would handle it correctly. The attack has shaped her life: she describes it as lonely, centred on work and her pets, with no relationship with a man since that night and a family she feels she missed out on. She also feels guilty for not reporting Carrick sooner. Her PTSD, she says, is "90% down to the Met Police, 10% to Carrick."

Rowley took the job in 2022 promising reform, when the Met was seen as in crisis after Sarah Everard's murder by a serving officer and the sharing of photos of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman. After Carrick's sentencing in January 2023 he said: "We have failed and I'm sorry. He should not have been a police officer." Baroness Casey's report two months later called the Met a "boys' club" that was institutionally misogynistic. Williams says she waited a couple of months for him to contact her, then emailed. He met her and said he was sorry, but with little detail, so it "meant nothing." She says he lacks empathy and cares more about public perception, and that while colleagues have been "fantastic," support from higher management is missing. "I would like him to resign. I don't think he's fit for the job."

The Met says it tried to reduce distress and re-traumatisation and to deal with her claims quickly and compassionately. It acknowledged the "unique and additional impact" on her because her exposure to Carrick came through being an officer, and called her continued public service commendable. A spokesperson said Rowley has repeatedly acknowledged her courage and has asked whether she would meet him again. Williams is unconvinced: "We can turn it around, but I don't think Mark Rowley can turn it around."