Carrie Johnson has called for better police treatment of sexual assault victims as she expressed her relief that black cab rapist John Worboys will remain in prison. The Parole Board this week said Worboys “continues to represent a high risk of committing further serious sexual offences against women.”
Victims’ Voices and Police Culture
Writing in the Daily Mail, Mrs Johnson, who helped bring the serial sex attacker to justice, said her decision to become involved in an ITV dramatisation of the case was driven by a desire to give victims a voice. “What I worry hasn’t changed is the police culture that meant Worboys was not caught nearly as soon as he should have been,” she said. “It takes enormous courage for women to come forward. They must know that when they do, they will be treated seriously and that every effort will be made to ensure justice is done.”
Worboys’ Crimes and Parole Decision
Worboys is serving a life sentence after luring women into his taxi late at night, pretending he had won money and offering them celebratory drinks laced with drugs. The wife of former prime minister Boris Johnson, one of several women who spoke out to keep Worboys behind bars, said news he had been refused parole came as a “huge relief” to many survivors. The parole decision published on Thursday was made behind closed doors despite the Parole Board previously ruling that a hearing would take place in public. But because Worboys then indicated he would not be requesting to be freed, a hearing was no longer required and the case was determined by considering paper evidence instead, it is understood. The 68-year-old “accepts that he does not currently meet the test for release” and claims to feel “enormous regret, remorse and shame,” according to parole papers.
Timeline of Justice
Worboys was first jailed in 2009 for 19 sexual offences linked to attacks on 12 victims between October 2006 and February 2008 in London, and given an indefinite sentence for public protection with a minimum term of eight years. In December 2017, a Parole Board panel decided he was ready for release, sparking a legal challenge by two of his victims that successfully got the decision overturned. Amid outrage over the battle, rules were then changed to allow some parole hearings to be held in public and permit better scrutiny of the processes used.
Ongoing Concerns
While Mrs Johnson welcomed changes to the parole system, she said victims were still being failed when reporting sexual assault to police. “I was a 19-year-old university student when I got into the taxi of John Worboys – the man now known as the black cab rapist,” she wrote. “Nearly 20 years on, while much has changed, I fear the way the police deal with crimes such as sexual assault and rape is no better than it was then.” Reflecting on her own experience, Mrs Johnson recounted the night the cab driver spiked her drink after claiming he had won big at a casino. While she managed to pour one glass of champagne onto the floor, he later returned with a bottle of vodka, which she would discover had been spiked. After making it home, she said she “never made it into my bed. Instead, I passed out in the bathroom, lying in the empty bathtub, fully clothed,” she said.
Years later, allegations against Worboys emerged and a friend Mrs Johnson had confided in contacted her about the case. Mrs Johnson said she was able to identify him in a line-up and provided the police with a mobile phone number he had given her. The publicity around the case led further victims to come forward, and Worboys was charged with more crimes dating between 2000 and 2008, which he admitted. In 2019, he was handed two life sentences with a minimum term of six years. Worboys will be considered for parole again in around two years’ time.
