Worboys scandal wins new rights for victims
Powers will allow people to challenge early parole
VICTIMS of crime are to be given new powers to challenge parole board decisions to release the dangerous offenders who ruined their lives.
The move follows the fury provoked by the board’s decision to give serial rapist John Worboys early release last year.
The former taxi driver’s victims were only able to stop him being allowed out of jail after they went to court to challenge the decision.
The new “Worboys rule” means that a criminal’s victims can challenge a parole decision if they believe it is fundamentally flawed.
Now victims can apply directly to the Justice Secretary within 21 days of the decision being taken for a review.
Any request for a review will first be sent to a dedicated team at HM Prison and Probation Service.
It will consider whether there were serious mistakes or legal flaws in the release ruling.
Applications for reconsideration will then be sent to a named Parole Board judge who can either direct the original panel to review its decision or order a fresh hearing under a new panel. It means that victims will no longer have to go to the expensive ordeal of having to fight the case in the courts, reliving the crimes which damaged their lives.
Justice Secretary David Gauke said: “This landmark reform will, for the first time, empower victims to hold the Parole Board to account for its decision and help restore public confidence in the important work that it does.”
The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that the new rules would have applied in the Worboys case because the decision to release him was procedurally unfair.
Importantly, the rule will be used in the case of the very dangerous criminals serving indeterminate sentences – which have been ruled a breach of human rights by the European Court of Human Rights. Worboys, 61, was one of the offenders given such a sentence because of the number and seriousness of his crimes.
The Black Cab Rapist was convicted in 2009 of attacks on 12 women. However, police believe that there are more than 100 women who had been his victims.
The court decision to overturn Worboys’ conditional release led to the resignation of the head of the parole board Nick Hardwick.
At the time of the rapist’s potential release in March last year it emerged that the Crown Prosecution Service under the charge of Sir Keir Starmer, now Labour’s shadow Brexit Secretary, had decided not to pursue all the cases against Worboys.
In April last year, when the case was being debated, it emerged that the then justice minister Phillip Lee had asked the Ministry of Justice to investigate the use of chemical castration, which would allow sex offenders such as Worboys back on to the streets.
The review had been prompted because there are more than 1,000 serious sex offenders like Worboys on indeterminate sentences who will have to be considered for parole.
OPINION: PAGE 14