Worboys doctor: ‘Not all sex offenders are monstrous’

Psychologist whose report helped secure release of black cab rapist argues that public’s view is ‘simplistic’

THE release of John Worboys was secured with the help of a psychologist who believes sex offenders are too often labelled “monstrous individuals” who cannot be treated. Dr Jackie Craissati’s expert report into Worboys helped to persuade the Parole Board to let the “black cab rapist” out of jail after serving a minimum eight-year term.

Dr Craissati was hired by Worboys’s legal team to show he did not present “a risk of serious harm” to the public.

Dr Craissati is also an official paid adviser to the Parole Board and sits on its review committee, which examines cases where former prisoners have committed serious further offences within three years of release. Dr Craissati’s report into Worboys – convicted in 2009 of one rape and five sexual assaults and further offences of drugging women, but reckoned to be one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders – was presented to the Parole Board in December.

It is not clear if she also gave evidence in person at the hearing in Wakefield prison. News of his release was made public on Jan 4, provoking a furore.

Dr Craissati is due to give a university lecture later this month entitled “10 myths about sex offenders” where she will argue “that an objective understanding of the nature of sexual offending can better enable society to protect itself from future victimisation”.

Dr Craissati also argued in a 2004 book that the public’s view is too “simplistic”. She wrote in Managing Highrisk Sex Offenders in the Community: “It seems indisputable that there is enormous public interest in sexual offenders, represented by (or fuelled by) media coverage. A cursory look at the coverage over the last five years would suggest that no amount of research, education or careful management can assuage profoundly held public beliefs about the nature of sex offenders – monstrous individuals who prey incessantly on children and are impervious to punishment or rehabilitation.”

It is claimed that Dr Craissati’s advice that Worboys, 60, be released ran contrary to the opinions of some Prison Service officials. Harry Fletcher, a former probation union chief who now campaigns for victims’ rights, said: “My source on the state side said they were all angry that her report had got disproportionate weight.”

Dr Craissati, who has more than 30 years’ experience and was awarded an MBE in 2013 for services to mental health, was unavailable for comment.

A Parole Board spokesman said it had “carefully considered a detailed dossier of evidence of nearly 400 pages and held a hearing where it heard oral evidence from nine witnesses including four psychologists; three members of prison staff and two probation officers”.