Serving Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick, who was unmasked as one of the UK’s most prolific sex offenders, has been officially sacked from the force.

The 48-year-old was found to have committed gross misconduct after admitting 49 criminal charges including 24 counts of rape against 12 women over an 18-year period.

At a disciplinary hearing in Earl’s Court on Tuesday, Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe said: “This is a sickening and horrific case with far-reaching consequences for policing.”

Carrick faced complaints about his behaviour before he joined the force in 2001, then again as a probationer in 2002 and several times throughout his policing career until 2021.

He was only suspended from duty in October 2021 when he was arrested for rape, and his pay was finally stopped in December 2022 when he admitted the majority of the criminal charges he faced.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said weak policies and decisions meant Carrick was able to stay in the force for 20 years, despite repeated complaints being made against him.

Sir Mark told BBC Breakfast: “We’ve let London down – he’s been a police officer for 20 years.

“Through a combination of weak policies and weak decisions, over those 20 years we missed opportunities when he joined and subsequently, as behaviour came to the fore that we should have removed him from policing.

“Whether it would have affected him being a sex offender I don’t know, but he shouldn’t have been doing it as a police officer.”

More than 1,000 Metropolitan Police officers and staff who have previously been accused of domestic abuse or sexual offences are now having their cases reviewed.

Sir Mark said some will have involved a neighbour hearing raised voices, while others will have involved “very concerning” behaviour.

Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the Commissioner was asked if he could guarantee that a woman visiting a police station to report a sexual offence would not meet a police officer whose past behaviour was now under review, or who was tolerating similar behaviour in their department.

“I can’t, I’m not going to make a promise that I can’t stick to,” he said.

“I’m going to put in place ruthless systems to squeeze out those who shouldn’t be with us.”

Carrick’s offending has been described as one of the worst cases involving a serving police officer that the Crown Prosecution Service has ever dealt with.

He would meet women on dating apps or while out socially, using his status as a police officer at first to reassure them, and then later to intimidate them.

He kept some victims locked in a tiny cupboard for hours, beat them and urinated on them.

One ex-girlfriend told The Sun that Carrick boasted he was untouchable because of his job and would use his police-issue handcuffs and weapons at home during sex.

His mother Jean told The Guardian he changed as a teenager when a serious allegation was made against him. The newspaper did not say what the accusation was.

Carrick joined the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment aged 19 and went on tours to Cyprus and the Falklands.

About 15 years ago, he cut off contact with his mother because, she believes, he did not like his younger half-brother and sister.

She told the newspaper she was devastated by the allegations against him, adding: “He’s still my boy, still my son. I just don’t know why he’s done it.

“You know, when he was doing well, and now he's lost everything."