Serial rapists kept Met jobs after vetting failure

Serial rapists including David Carrick were left in the ranks of the Metropolitan police because of a failure to carry out necessary vetting on thousands of officers and staff.

- Vikram Dodd

An internal review by the force found it had lowered vetting checks into the background of prospective and existing police officers and staff between 2013 and 2023. The Home Office said the Met estimated that more than 5,000 officers and staff had been recruited without the right checks. It has been unable to confirm if pre-employment checks were carried out on about 17,000 officers and staff.

The Guardian revealed in September that about 300 new recruits may have had substandard or no vetting. But the Met’s report found that 1,400 officers who should have been flagged by vetting were left in the force with police powers.

The Met found evidence that 131 committed criminal or misconduct offences ranging from rapes to drug offences, hate crimes and lower levels infractions suchas being intoxicated onduty.

Among those who joined or stayed in the force because of defective vetting was Cliff Mitchell, hired despite an unproven child rape allegation and later convicted of 10 counts of rape, including three of rapinga child under the age of 13.