A police officer from Hertfordshire has been given a life sentence for attacking a dozen women over a 17-year period.

Former Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick, from Stevenage, has today been sentenced to a minimum of 30 years and 239 days after appearing at Southwark Crown Court.

He previously admitted 49 charges, including 24 counts of rape and charges of sexual assault, controlling and coercive behaviour and false imprisonment.

In a two-day sentencing hearing, the court heard how the 48-year-old “monster” used his power and control to carry out a “catalogue of violent and brutal” sex attacks between 2003 and 2020.

His victims spoke of how they had “encountered evil”, and the court was told Mr Carrick sent one of his victims a photograph of himself with a work-issue gun, saying: “Remember I am the boss.”

The court also heard how he told another woman he was the “safest person that she could be with and that he was a police officer”, before taking her back to his nearby flat to rape her.