Jailed 'Black Cab Rapist' Handed Two More Life Sentences
John Worboys
The 62 year-old, who is now known as John Radford, was jailed in 2009 for assaults on 12 women in London.
Worboys targeted vulnerable young women leaving nightclubs in Chelsea and the West End, picking them up in his cab and persuading them to drink a glass of champagne with him. The champagne was drugged and he would then assault them when they were unconscious.
He was locked up indefinitely for the public's protection with a minimum term of eight years after being found guilty of 19 sex offences against the 12 women between 2006 and 2008.
The four further victims came forward after a public outcry caused by a Parole Board ruling that he was safe to be freed.
In January 2018, the Parole Board said Worboys would be freed after serving ten years, but his victims challenged the decision.
That decision was then overturned by the High Court, leading to a review of the decision where the Parole Board decided Worboys must remain in jail.
Among the reasons given for refusing Worboys parole were his "sense of sexual entitlement" and a need to control women.
Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC told the Old Bailey that psychiatrist Philip Joseph found Worboys had been "fantasising" about attacking women since 1986.
A probation report in August this year found "he is potentially just as dangerous now as the point of the first sentence".
After the four women came forward, Worboys admitted two charges of administering a drug with intent to commit rape or indecent assault.
He also pleaded guilty to two further charges of administering a substance with intent to commit a sexual offence.
Mr Penny said the first victim was targeted in 2000 or early 2001 after a night out at a wine bar in Dover Street in Soho.
The second victim, a university student living in north London, was picked up after a night out with friends at a club on New Oxford Street in 2003.
Worboys' third victim was picked up after a night out on King's Road in 2007 where he told her he had won £40,000 at a casino and offered her champagne.
Mr Penny said: "She woke up in bed the following morning. The bedclothes had not moved and her hands were crossed over her chest, which was unusual.
"She was sufficiently unnerved to check herself. There were no visible signs she had been touched."
Mr Penny told the court: "The consistent themes throughout, together with the content of what took place, seems to be the profound effect not knowing what happened has had in each of these women throughout their lives, as a result of having been unfortunate enough to get into the defendant's black cab."
Among the first 12 victims was a 26 year-old office worker going home to Fulham in October 2006, who was able to escape by getting out of the cab after waking to find Worboys assaulting her. Another victim was a woman from Putney whom he picked up outside a club on Tottenham Court Road on 21 December 2007. He raped her after driving her home, leaving DNA evidence which was used to convict him.
Police believe that Worboys may have carried out over 100 rapes and sexual attacks on women in London.
Sentencing him, Mrs Justice McGowan said she did not know when "if ever" he would cease to be a risk.
December 18, 2019