The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) issued a statement late Sunday saying an officer, said to be from the same VIP protection unit, Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, as Sarah Everard's murderer, was arrested and charged with rape in Hertfordshire on Saturday.
“I am deeply concerned to hear the news today that an officer from the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command has been arrested and now charged with this serious offence," Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said. "I fully recognise the public will be very concerned too.”
PC David Carrick, 46, will appear virtually at Hatfield Remand Court on Monday, 4 October, after being formally charged on Sunday.
"The officer was off-duty in Hertfordshire at the time," the statement read. "He was arrested on 2 October by Hertfordshire Constabulary and suspended the same day by the Metropolitan Police".
The Met said the incident had been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Wayne Couzens, an officer from the same unit, was off-duty and in plainclothes when he kidnapped Sarah Everard on Clapham Common in southwestern London in March on a pretext of arresting her for a breach of emergency COVID-19 regulations.
Couzens raped and strangled Everard and set fire to her body in an old refrigerator in a woodland area near Ashford in Kent. On Thursday, he was handed a rare full life sentence for his crimes.
Everard's murder prompted renewed protests by women and many others and calls for all serving officers to be re-vetted.
Earlier on Sunday, House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle confirmed in a statement that Couzens had previously been on duty at Parliament, but said the officer had never been issued a permanent security pass for the building.
"The news that Couzens was deployed as an armed officer on the Parliamentary estate is extremely concerning and raises a number of questions about police vetting procedures," Hoyle said.
"I have asked the Metropolitan Police to meet me urgently to discuss how this person could have been deemed suitable for deployment here," he added. "I will be seeking reassurance that at no time was anyone on the Parliamentary Estate put at risk".