London police officer held

LONDON: A UK court remanded a London police officer charged with rape in custody on Monday, as the head of the capital’s scandal-hit police force announced an internal review of its standards and culture.

Hatfield Magistrates’ Court in Hertfordshire, north of London, ordered Police Constable David Carrick be held to face charges he raped a woman he met on the dating app Tinder. The court heard the 46-year-old, who was arrested on Saturday and suspended the same day by London’s Metropolitan Police, "emphatically denies" attacking her after they went for drinks while he was off-duty. Carrick, who appeared via video-link, will next appear at St Albans Crown Court on November 1.

The case is the latest against a serving police officer, and comes just days after another Met colleague, Wayne Couzens, was convicted of the rape and murder of a woman. Couzens, 48, was jailed Thursday for the rest of his life after falsely arresting Sarah Everard on the pretence she had broken coronavirus restrictions, then raping and murdering her.