Justice in the dock as black cab rapist wins freedom
ONE of Britain’s most notorious sex attackers is to be released from prison after a decision by the Parole Board which ministers warned could “erode faith” in the justice system.
John Worboys, who became known as the “black cab rapist”, will be released at the end of this month after serving less than 10 years behind bars.
Worboys, 60, was convicted of 19 charges of drugging and sexually assaulting at least 12 women and raping one of them but police believe he attacked more than 100 women during his time as a London taxi driver.
During Worboys’s trial it emerged that he kept a “rape kit” in his vehicle and drugged victims with spiked drinks after claiming he had won the lottery, before attacking them.
Government sources said the decision to release him was “highly unusual” while victims of Worboys told of their dismay at not being informed of his impending freedom.
Last night there were fears that Worboys was released as part of a drive, launched by the Government in 2016, to give prisoners serving indefinite sentences the chance of release.
Worboys was given an indefinite sentence with a minimum of eight years by a judge in April 2009 because his charges did not meet the requirement for a life term.
However, when a European Court ruling in 2012 deemed Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences (IPP) illegal a campaign to have all prisoners reviewed or freed was launched.
Last year the Government pledged to clear a backlog and focus extra resources on parole hearings for prisoners serving IPPS, leading to the announcement of Worboys’s release yesterday.
The decision was heavily criticised by sources across government who said that ministers were powerless to intervene and stop his release.
A government source said: “This is a surprising decision by the Parole Board. He is in a Category A jail. To go from Category A to release, without being moved to open conditions first, isn’t unknown – but it is certainly uncommon. In these circumstances, the decision made by the Parole Board is binding and there is nothing the Secretary of State can do to stop it.”
One source in the Ministry of Justice also expressed deep concerns, claiming the decision not to first send Worboys to an open jail was “highly unusual and disappointing”.
A minister added: “This could erode faith in the Parole Board and its decisions. The threshold for release does need to be a very high one.”
The decision has cast doubt on how the case was handled initially.
After Worboys’s conviction, a further 75 women came forward to say that they, too, had been victims of him.
Sir Keir Starmer, the former director of public prosecutions and the current Labour shadow Brexit secretary, declined to comment last night after it
emerged he had made the decision not to prosecute extra cases against Worboys.
Worboys’s victims also criticised the decision. Two said that they had not been told in advance about his pending release despite the serious nature of his crimes.
One victim told Sky News: “I feel shaken up and very upset at the decision.”
Another revealed that she had found out about Worboys’s release while cooking dinner for her children.
Harriet Wistrich, a solicitor acting for victims of Worboys, told Channel 4 News: “Police who failed them so badly in the first place have not informed [the victims] of this release and one of the clients has just said to me that she was literally cooking dinner for her kids and she feels absolutely sick to her stomach to hear this and to see this man coming out, who is clearly a danger to society and to so many women.”
Karen Ingala Smith, chief executive of Nia, a women’s sexual and domestic violence charity, said: “The police believe that Worboys may have raped more than 100 women. Others think this is a conservative estimate.
“He’s served nine years and nine months, that’s just over a month per rape victim.
‘This man is clearly a danger to society and to so many women’
How can we say justice has been served?”
The original trial judge in the Worboys case said at the time that he had a significant risk of re-offending and the Government’s adviser on rape policy said the decision to sentence him to eight years was “bizarre”.
Dave Gee, a former criminal investigations department head who worked with the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers, also said it would send a message that rape cases are not taken seriously.
The decision to release Worboys also raises questions about the scheme that allows IPP prisoners the prospect of release. After the sentences were ruled illegal by the EU court, moves to oversee the release of prisoners after their minimum terms began, in part due to overcrowding in prisons.
Campaigners for prison reform have called for IPP inmates to be released in an accelerated programme and Nick Hardwick, chairman of the Parole Board, claimed the law could be changed to speed up the process.
IPP prisoners are being released at a faster rate than ever before, according to official figures.
One minister said: “The issue of IPPS should be about a different category of offences. There are some people who do not merit being jailed for years without release. But this is a case with multiple cases of the most serious offences.”