Parole chairman quits as judges quash release of black-cab rapist
THE HEAD of the body that ordered the release of black-cab rapist John Worboys has resigned after the High Court quashed the decision.
Parole Board chairman Professor Nick Hardwick announced he was standing down after being told by Justice Secretary David Gauke that his position was “untenable”.
The dramatic development came as three senior judges in London ruled that the board must make a “fresh determination” in whether to release the serial sex attacker.
It means Worboys, 60, will remain in jail at least until the case has been reassessed. The process is expected to take several months.
Outrage erupted earlier this year after it emerged a threeperson panel had decided that Worboys was safe to be freed after about a decade behind bars.
The Parole Board was ordered to revisit the case after two victims mounted a legal challenge in the High Court, funded through a public appeal for donations.
The three High Court judges who overturned the decision to release Worboys from prison said a number of “striking features” of his case “give rise to concern”.
They said his change of position from denial to admitting the sex attacks was a “dramatic
volte-face” which came after “at least six years of his adamantly maintaining his innocence and attempting to secure his release”.
Handing down their ruling, Sir Brian Leveson, Mr Justice Jay and Mr Justice Garnham raised the possibility that 60-year-old Worboys – now known as John Radford – was “not being open and honest with the professionals” and the Parole Board panel itself.
Prof Hardwick said he had no role in the decision but was “sorry for the mistakes that were made” and said he would “accept accountability”.
A MAN who helped imprison a vulnerable victim in his Sheffield home has had his jail sentence increased after an appeal from the Solicitor General.
Shakaiyah Swindells, aged 17 at the time of his offending, was involved in a “sustained campaign of abuse” towards a 40-year-old vulnerable victim, the Home Office has said. He had been the last of three abusers who had moved into their victim’s home, all of whom were found guilty in December of false imprisonment and wounding at Sheffield Crown Court. His co-accused, Matthew Ward, 23 and of Garland Croft, and Marcus Cullumbine, then aged 20 and of Haigh Moor Way, saw their sentences extended earlier this month.
Yesterday Swindells, of Shortbrook Drive, who had originally been sentenced to seven years, was handed an extended sentence of nine years at the Court of Appeal. Speaking after the hearing, the Solicitor General, Robert Buckland QC MP, said: “By becoming involved in Ward and Cullumbine’s campaign of abuse after it had started, Swindells had the chance to stop it. Instead he joined the attacks and inflicted untold damage on a vulnerable member of the community. I am pleased that the Court of Appeal has increased Swindells’ sentence today. I hope that the fact that all three of the abusers’ sentences have now been increased sends the message that this kind of hate crime will be severely punished.”