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STORY: Hundreds of police officers within the UK's biggest force are likely to be fired for sexual misconduct and domestic abuse offences.

That's according to Britain's most senior policeman on Tuesday (January 17), who seeks to regain public trust after a 48-year-old officer admitted to being a serial rapist.

Speaking outside Scotland Yard, London Commissioner Mark Rowley said many jobs will be lost in this most recent clean-up of the Metropolitan Police.

''David Carrick has been a horrifically abusive individual. What he's done to his victims is truly abhorrent, their courage in coming forward is truly admirably but we've let London down. He's been a police officer for twenty years through a combination of weak policies and weak decisions.

"We're systematically reviewing every member of police staff and police officer who we have any historic flags against for being involved in an incident of domestic abuse or sexual violence, I'm sure some of those will turn out to be nothing of concern but many of them will sadly turn out to be of concern."

He added that investigations were underway into some 800 officers over 1,000 claims.

Carrick, now considered to be one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders, admitted on Monday to carrying out 24 counts of rape over almost two decades as a police officer - while his colleagues missed chances to stop him.

That case is one of many incidences in recent years of serious wrongdoing within the capital's police force, also known as "the Met".

Confidence in the force of more than 43,000 officers and staff is waning - not just in response to sexual misconduct claims, but also a wider culture of corruption, racism and misogyny.

Examples include an officer's jailing over the rape and murder of a woman he abducted as she walked home.

Another serving officer was convicted of being a member of a neo-Nazi group, while two more were jailed for sharing pictures from a crime scene after two sisters, who were both Black, were murdered.

An inquiry into one unit found discussions about beating women, with one officer threatening to rape a female colleague.

The Met has been the subject of an independent review since 2021.

Initial findings concluded "radical" reform was needed.