Fury as taxi rapist given £3k legal aid
Victims’ outrage at state help
TAXI rapist John Worboys got at least £3,000 in legal aid to help his bid for freedom, campaigners claim.
Meanwhile his victims are denied such state help as they battle to keep him behind bars.
As a prisoner serving an indeterminate term Worboys, 60, would be eligible for legal aid if he had under £3,000 savings and earned less than £12,000 a year.
Harry Fletcher of the Victims Rights Campaign said: “All parole cases like his are legally aided, in contrast to the victims who get no state aid.
“The whole parole system is biased in favour of the prisoner.”
At last year’s Parole Board hearing that approved his release, Worboys was represented by a lawyer who commissioned a report from an independent psychologist, with a total cost estimated at £3,000.
His victims do not qualify for the funding, their lawyers said.
They have not been told if Worboys got a grant, and the Ministry of Justice would not say whether he did or not.
Lawyer Harriet Wistrich has lodged a judicial review on behalf of two victims, along with London Mayor Sadiq Khan. The two victims are crowdfunding the High Court fight.
Worboys was jailed for a minimum of eight years in 2009 for drugging and sexually assaulting 12 passengers.