The copper who says she wouldn't report a rape to her own force…
This morning a serving Met detective, DC Linda Williams, went public. She was raped in 2004 by a fellow officer, PC David Carrick, who is now serving life for sexual offences against her and 11 other women. She has waived her right to anonymity to speak.
She sued the Met for failing to protect her. The case took four years. It's now settled for an undisclosed six-figure sum, and the Met hasn't admitted liability. She says the worst part was the commissioner's lawyers questioning how severe her PTSD could be because she'd been raped "only once". The BBC has seen a Met document saying a key factor in valuing her claim was that the "abuse itself was isolated to a single episode".
She's now calling for Sir Mark Rowley to resign. The BBC calls it "an unprecedented move for a serving officer". A detective publicly telling her own commissioner to go.
Here's what's really going on.
1. **"Without acceptance of liability."** This is how most civil claims against police forces end. The force pays out, but no judge ever rules that it failed. It's cheaper than a trial, sets no precedent and leaves no judgment for the next claimant to point to. Lawyers call it routine. To the person on the other end, it reads as "here's your money, and we still say we did nothing wrong."
2. **The "single episode" line.** In a damages claim, the other side argues over what it's worth, and how long the abuse went on is one of the things they weigh. That's the cold mechanics. But it's the commissioner's name on that case. You can't stand up in public saying victims come first while your lawyers run that line in private against one of your own detectives. Somebody senior should have read that document and stopped it before it went out.
3. **Carrick was no secret.** Sky reports he came to police attention nine times between 2000 and 2021, including allegations of rape, domestic violence, harassment and assault. None led to a criminal sanction or a misconduct finding. He passed vetting to join in 2001. He was re-vetted in 2017, years overdue because of backlogs, and passed again. After a rape arrest in July 2021, he wasn't re-vetted at all. Every incident was looked at on its own and closed. Anyone who's done the job knows how that happens: no further action from another force, a word from the line manager, file shut. The pattern only shows up if someone's actually paid to look for it.
4. **The line that should worry everyone.** In the early 2000s she was a rape investigation officer herself. She supported victims through the process, but didn't report her own rape. She says that if it happened tomorrow, she still wouldn't report it to the Met. When the people who know the system best won't use it, that tells you more than any culture-change press release.
**What the press is missing.** The criminal side is done. Hertfordshire Police brought Carrick to justice, and Linda came forward after seeing he'd been charged over another woman. This fight is about how forces treat their own when they're the victim, and whether change at the top reaches the people on the ground. The Met says it tried to reduce her distress and deal with her claims "as quickly and compassionately as possible", and Rowley has asked to meet her again. Both things can be true, and the process can still have failed her.
As someone who wore the uniform, I'll say it plainly. If a victim inside your own building doesn't trust you to handle her case, the job isn't finished.
Links:
https://t.co/02aNGoy3z8
https://t.co/DbCDmCnODj
@LottieHistory Acaster would likely not approve of our female-only event, he shares the talking points of the men opposing us.
Another misogynist bore.
🚩 A man is in court charged with sexually assaulting two six-year-old girls in the mixed-sex showers of an Armagh leisure centre. Yet again children pay the price for the safeguarding failures of local councils who are supposed to protect us in public spaces. This is why we campaign for single-sex spaces.
The safest changing room is a single-sex changing room.
Women are perfectly entitled to organise events with our own purpose, boundaries and message.
Misogynist men's rights activists
have heard there’s a FEMALE-ONLY Reclaim the Night happening in Nottingham that doesn't include men & they are not happy.
2 years today, 18:38 pm, you took your final breath, i had to tell you it was " ok to go" Whilst my heart shattered. I love you Rhiannon & i promised you I would never give up on you, & I wont.
Riep beautiful blue eyed girl
Miss you forever, Mum 🤍💔
@NottsRtN These men are so deluded. They steal everything.
Our words
Our history
Our spaces
Our events
Our history
Just leave women alone
Trans ideology is violence against women and girls.
#MVAWG
We are grassroots event organisers for Reclaim the Night 2026 Nottingham 🌙♀️ & we are getting heat for daring to centre females only!
Just ordinary women with no affiliations to any organisation but we thank misogynists for acknowledging that sex matters.
@SexMattersOrg !
Of course theirs might be bigger. So?
Since when did crowd size become the measure of what is right and wrong?
Numbers don't determine the validity of a message.
We're not here to compete for the biggest crowd. We're here to make our message heard.
Women. Safety. End MVAWAG.
In Scotland, the bodies of people who died thousands of years ago get more consideration than female nurses who don’t want a bloke staring at them as they undress or getting his giblets out in the ladies changing room at work.
Can't believe we can't get 100,000
So close to 10,000
But impossible when our petitions are being classed as spam,
Today a report on violence against women and girls.
Includes men, can't fxxking believe how much us women are hated
William Dunlop sexually abused and strangled 22-year-old Julie Hogg before hiding her body beneath a bath in Billingham, near Middlesbrough, in 1989.
https://t.co/GUMsgoapwF
Julie's son, Kevin Hogg, and mother, Ann Ming, have been in London observing Dunlop, who was eventually jailed for life in 2006, as he makes his fourth bid for parole.
Anne said he had been diagnosed as a psychopath and in her opinion would always remain one. "I do not believe in his reform," she said. "He'll come out, he'll kill somebody else."
📢 RECLAIM THE NIGHT NOTTINGHAM 2026
Is returning on Saturday 7 November 2026.
A grassroots group of women’s rights campaigners are organising the march following last years organisers decision to "pause" this year’s event.
Evening
@CommissionerDA
Q1, How many women compared to men?
Q2, Why haven't we got the breakdown between the two sexes?
Q3, How many pregnant women?
Q4, How many new mums?
Please can you respond with this data ?
Thanks