Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
NO REGRETS , NO REMORSE
FELLOW PRISONER REVEALS BLACK CAB RAPIST’S SICK PAROLE TACTICS Worboys asked me what to say to have best chance of release He boasted that he’d return to London streets he terrorised Claimed he’d go onto dating websites as soon as he was out
SNEERING sex attacker John Worboys shrugged off his rape spree and asked for tips to convince a Parole Board to free him, a fellow lag reveals today.
The so-called Black Cab Rapist boasted his victims found him “dazzlingly attractive” and said he wanted to return to the streets where he carried out his sick crimes.
Monster Worboys, 60, showed NO remorse, NO regrets and NO compassion for the women – up to 200 – he is feared to have drugged and assaulted.
When quizzed about his crimes he would stare menacingly and switch “from rational to angry in a second”.
Fellow prisoner Matthew Gallagher, 46, told the Sunday Mirror how Worboys:
Played down his crimes by insisting he “didn’t drag his victims into his cab”.
Asked to be coached on how to convince probation officials he was no longer a danger.
Chillingly plans to join a dating website when freed – and wants to return to London, where he conducted his reign of terror.
Our remarkable revelations show hapless Parole Board officials were duped into announcing in January that Worboys would be released. That led to a public outcry and a judicial bid by some victims which forced an embarrassing and costly U-turn.
CONNING
And Matthew’s account today raises the question how officials ever considered Worboys fit for release.
Matthew, who saw Worboys “almost all day, every day” for months, said: “He is conning the justice system when he has not shown one bit of remorse or contrition for those poor women.
“His justification was that most of his victims found him dazzlingly attractive.
“And he always tried to downplay his crimes, saying ‘I didn’t drag them in’.
“The reality is I think he hates women. He was very misogynistic and was always very aggressive about them, often describing women from his past as b**ches.
“He said ‘I want to go back to London when I get out’. He said some victims still live in the area and gave a wry smile.
“Then he said ‘f*** ’em, they’ve had enough out of me. I’ve done my time’.
“I told him I didn’t think he’d be allowed to move back to London. He just said: ‘Oh, well, maybe the outskirts. I’ll go on a dating website, put on my glad rags and go pull some women’.”
Matthew said Worboys, who hails from Rotherhithe, South East London, even jokingly suggested he could afford to “do a Gary Glitter and p*** off to Cambodia”.
Convicted robber Matthew spent four months with Worboys on C Wing at HMP Wakefield. They did a rehabilitation course together and Matthew – who was released last week – would visit Worboys in his cell.
He went on: “I felt incredibly uncomfort- able sitting in the same cell as him. He stares completely through you and can flick from normal and rational to angry in a second, often playing the victim. I had to endure his cunning and conniving questions about prisoner rehabilitation and risk psychology.
“He knew I had already been released from an indeterminate sentence like the one he is serving. He kept asking me what to say to a clinical psychologist at his next assessment.
“He wanted to know all about the checklist used to assess for psychopathic traits and behaviour and he wanted to know what their version of a personality disorder is. Worboys had heard prisoners were misleading psychologists and he wanted to know all about that. I was surprised he knew so much about complex psychologist language. But one inmate told me he studies anything that will help regain his freedom, even offering financial incentives to his few friends to
TAXI PERIL Worboys drugged passengers trawl law books for loopholes.” Worboys has already cost taxpayers £166,000 in legal aid but the blunder over his planned release will have sent that bill soaring.
The former stripper was a cabbie when he targeted women on nights out in London’s West End. He pretended to have won the lottery and offered passengers champagne, wine and vodka to celebrate with him. But the drinks were laced with sedatives.
Worboys was jailed in 2009 for 19 offences against 12 women and ordered to serve at least eight years. He believes he has served his time, is being kept locked up for political reasons and plans to go to the European Court of Human Rights to win his freedom.
Since being jailed 19 more women have come forward to say he assaulted them and another 10 went to the police after it was revealed he was up for parole.
Worboys denied any wrongdoing until 2015, when he told psychologists he “always felt guilty” and claimed he wanted to “take responsibility”. He blamed alcohol and the stress of the break-up of his marriage.
One psychologist noted he “appeared nervous throughout, on occasion becoming tearful”. The board recommended release after he completed a sex offenders’ programme – saying he had been “open and honest” and recommended release.
But Matthew told how Worboys would turn nasty when pressed about his crimes.
REJECTION
He said: “I once asked him if what they said was true about him spiking champagne and claiming of a lottery win to women. He gave me a chilling look and said ‘careful lad’.
“During the course lessons I was in with him he would talk about anger and bring up rejection. I think he has a burning resentment for women.
“His moods could fluctuate from high to low and he was a bit of a control freak. He would take newspapers to his cell and if there was something about him in it that day he would always then be in a raging mood.
“He has this strange habit of tapping his heel vigorously when speaking and would say ‘Everyone’s lying. I’ve been convicted for what I’ve done. They’re looking for compo’.
“He moaned his crimes had already cost him £200,000 in compensation and that he’d had to sell his old flat in Rotherhithe to pay them. He seemed to think the fact he had paid compensation smoothed things over.”
Worboys, who now goes by the name of John Radford is temporarily on suicide watch.
Matthew, who says he is going straight after facing up to his own past, is convinced Worboys must stay inside. He warned: “I was left in no doubt that he is still a danger. That’s why I’m coming forward now.”