Worboys faces ‘Catch-22’ threat of charges if he makes second release bid
Black cab rapist will be forced to acknowledge other attacks to Parole Board, justice experts say
JOHN WORBOYS could be charged with further offences if he makes another bid for parole, justice experts said last night.
The so-called black cab rapist’s release from an indeterminate prison sentence was blocked this week after the High Court ruled the Parole Board had wrongly assessed his case.
The panel made its decision based on his 19 convictions, rather than the 100 or more offences he is suspected of committing.
Worboys, 60, is now expected to undergo another parole hearing in the coming months at which he will try to persuade officials he is safe to be set free.
But in order to convince the panel he is a reformed character, the 60-yearold will have to acknowledge the other rapes and sexual assaults he has never been charged with.
It is hoped that any confession he makes could provide the final piece in the jigsaw his victims and the police need to bring more charges against him.
Harry Fletcher, the former probation union chief and now a victim’s rights campaigner, said Worboys was in a Catch-22 situation, which could scupper any chance of him being released in the near future.
He said: “What the Parole Board will now have to do, is take into account the other offences.”
At the hearing Sir Brian Leveson found there was a huge credibility gap between what Worboys had been prepared to admit – just the offences for which he was convicted – and the nearly 100 further assaults he is thought to have committed.
“When the panel re-assess him, they will have to ask him to acknowledge all of his offending and list the other victims. If he denies those he will have a problem and they won’t let him out.
“But if he confesses at the next parole hearing to other offences they could charge him with those.
“Had he been convicted of multiple rapes he would have got 25 years, similar to the M25 rapist. It’s a complete and utter mess.”
Prosecutors have insisted that Worboys was charged with every rape where the evidence had met the threshold. But his victims have said that there is already enough evidence to put extra charges before the courts.
The London cab driver was convicted of 19 serious sexual offences against 12 women. He has already paid some of his victims £214,000 in damages after settling a civil claim, but refused to accept liability.
Pressure has been mounting on the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to review its decision not to charge Worboys in connection with some of the 83 cases that police passed on to them.
A CPS spokesman has insisted that every rape allegation that met the evidential test was prosecuted.
A further 19 women came forward after Worboys’s conviction in 2009 and 10 more went to the police following the Parole Board’s decision.
But no further charges have been brought to date and the CPS has said it will only review the cases if new evidence is brought forward.