Worboys release blocked after victims make court appeal

JOHN WORBOYS’S victims last night obtained a court order blocking his prison release, as it emerged he completed a sex offenders’ treatment programme that increases reoffending.

Lawyers for two victims won the first round of a legal battle to keep the former black cab driver, who is believed to have attacked more than 100 women, in jail. Worboys, 60, was due to be released within days after the Parole Board ruled he no longer posed a risk to the public.

But Mr Justice Supperstone ordered an interim stay on the release at a High Court hearing yesterday afternoon. A further hearing to decide if the victims can bring a full-blown judicial review will take place between Feb 6 and 8. Harriet Wistrich, their lawyer, said: “Bringing this case was the last thing they wanted to do … But they feel under a duty to do all they can to keep him off the streets.”

The Daily Telegraph has been told that a study was carried out on the Sex Offender Treatment Programme (SOTP) that Worboys completed. The report, commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, found that “more treated sex offenders committed at least one sexual reoffence during the follow-up period when compared with the matched comparison offenders”.

The study found one in ten sex offenders who completed the programme committed new offences, compared with one in 12 of those who did not.