Boris: Ban black cab rapist from London
BORIS Johnson has backed calls for black cab rapist John Worboys to be banned from living in London after his release from prison.
The Foreign Secretary and former London mayor was among 25 Mps who signed a letter demanding that the serial sex attacker is not allowed to return to the city where he committed his crimes.
They called on the parole Board to impose an ‘exclusion zone’ on the capital when the 60-year- old predator is freed on licence, which could be as early as this week.
The letter to board chairman Nick Hardwick warned: ‘Anything short of this would be a betrayal of his victims and evidence the parole system is not fit for purpose.’
Worboys’ victims are terrified that if he is not prohibited from entering the city he will ‘come after them’. During his trial it was revealed he wrote down the women’s addresses in a notebook.
It came amid ongoing anger that Worboys, suspected by police of committing more than 500 attacks, is set to be freed from top-security HMp Wakefield after less than ten years behind bars for 19 offences.
The former London taxi driver received an indeterminate prison sentence in 2009, with a minimum of eight years, for drugging and sexually assaulting 12 women in his cab.
on Friday, Justice Secretary David Gauke came under fire for scrapping a last-ditch bid to block the controversial release. After receiving legal advice, he said it would ‘not be appropriate’ to bring a judicial review of the parole Board’s decision because it had followed the correct procedures.
Yesterday one of Worboys’ victims, whose account is published below, begged the authorities not to release him.
The woman said she was ‘terrified’ that he may track her down as he ‘knows where so many of his victims live’. The victim, who was drugged and attacked when she was a teenager, said the 14 women who testified against Worboys in court ten years ago were told they had provided enough evidence to ‘jail him for a long time, probably life’ – but that ‘turned out not to be true’.
She went to police after reports of a black cab driver who had been arrested and details of an ordeal similar to her own. She said that following her attack she ‘ fell through the door, barely able to walk’ and told her mother she ‘wanted to die’.
Worboys is believed to have carried out at least 100 rapes and sexual assaults on women in London between 2002 and 2008.
The former stripper and porn actor gave his victims spiked champagne before attacking them. More than £52,000 has been raised to help victims pay up to £100,000 in legal costs for a judicial review of the case.
Meanwhile, Scotland Yard bosses have asked police to find new evidence that could keep Worboys locked up. An internal message has been sent to Metropolitan police officers asking them to report any leads to the sexual crimes unit in an attempt to charge him with further offences.