Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Parole board found taxi rapist ‘open and honest’ He was believed despite denying crimes QC: Worboys lies ‘blown out the water’
TAXI rapist John Worboys was cleared for release because officials found him “open and honest”, despite admitting just 12 of more than 105 sex attacks.
The Parole Board said Worboys took “full responsibility” and had “good insight” into his crimes, though he claimed to have raped one woman for “four seconds”.
The board granted his release in January, but two victims are challenging the decision at the High Court.
Phillippa Kaufmann QC, for the women, said it was wrong to decide Worboys took “full responsibility” for his crimes.
She told the court: “It is absolutely obvious that this evidence of wider offending had a central bearing on all of those conclusions that formed the basis of the
Parole Board’s conclusion that there had been a reduction in risk.”
Worboys was jailed indefinitely in 2009, with a minimum of eight years, for assaults on 12 women he picked up while working as a black cab driver in London.
In 2015, Mr Justice Green ruled in a civil case taken by the victims that Worboys committed “more than 105 rapes and sexual assaults” between 2002 and 2008.
He paid £241,000 to 11 victims as part of an out-of-court settlement after Milly Dowler killer Levi Bellfield acted as his legal assistant in a meeting with a solicitor.
Worboys said in a statement: “I settled because I wanted to deal with the litigation and move on... I’m innocent of each of the other allegations except for those I was convicted of.”
Ms Kaufmann said the Parole Board’s reasons for believing Worboys no longer poses a risk included that he had “learned to be open and honest”.
They considered his risk was reduced because he took “full responsibility” for his crimes, had “good insight” into his behaviour and had undergone treatment.
But he told psychiatrists his offending lasted 18 months when in fact it went on for at least six years and claimed he used the drug Nytol just once when the evidence showed this was a lie.
Ms Kaufmann concluded: “The Parole Board failed to take account of critical evidence – evidence that wasn’t in its discretion to ignore.”
Wearing reading glasses, Worboys, who now goes by the name John Radford, looked tired as he watched the proceedings via a video link from Wakefield prison, West Yorks.
Worboys said the “trigger” for his offending was the end of a relationship in 2005, when police believe it started at least two years earlier. Ms Kaufmann added: “That throws into question the entire account that he has given for why his offending began.
“The finding that he had insight into his offending is simply blown out of the water.
“It also blows out of the water the Parole Board’s finding that he is open and honest.”
A temporary bar on Worboys’ release, initially imposed in January by the High Court, continues pending the outcome of the proceedings.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has also launched a judicial review against the action to free him.
The High Court hearing continues.