What to do with a Met police that harbours rapists and murderers? Scrap it and start again | Jonathan Freedland

Violence against women is a threat more lethal than terrorism and our biggest force bears great responsibility

The whole barrel is rotten. Perhaps it began with a few bad apples long ago, and of course some good ones will remain even now, but the rot in the Metropolitan force has spread.

You read of David Carrick, the officer who kept his uniform, his badge and, for many years, his gun even as he pursued a parallel career as a prolific sex offender, and of course you are sickened by the evil he has done: dozens of rapes and sexual offences against 12 women, over two decades, including imprisoning one of his victims, naked and terrified, in a tiny cupboard under the stairs. But an equal horror comes when you learn that the police had been warned eight times about Carrick's behaviour - eight - but did nothing. In fairness, that's not quite right; they did do something. They promoted him in 2009 to an elite armed unit.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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