Black-cab rapist John Worboys denied parole for second time

Rapist black-cab driver John Worboys will stay in prison after a parole board ruled that he remained a threat to women.

He is currently serving a life sentence for a string of sexual offences he committed by luring women into his taxi late at night, pretending to have won money and offering them an apparently celebratory drink that he had laced with drugs.

Carrie Johnson, who encountered Worboys when she was a student, spoke of her relief at the decision and said "women and girls across Britain are safer as a result".

The parole board refused to release the 68-year-old as he "continues to represent a high risk of committing further serious sexual offences upon women".

Worboys, now known as John Radford, "accepts that he does not currently meet the test for release", according to a decision published on Thursday.

The parole board said he claimed to feel "enormous regret, remorse and shame" towards "the women he has harmed and their families and friends".

Worboys was first convicted in 2009 of 19 sexual offences linked to attacks on 12 women between October 2006 and February 2008. He was given an indefinite sentence for public protection with a minimum term of eight years.

In 2019, he was sentenced to life with a minimum term of six years after more victims came forward about crimes he admitted to that took place between 2000 and 2008.

The victims contacted the police following publicity around a parole board panel decision that he was ready for release that was ultimately overturned after a legal challenge by two of his victims.

The exact number of victims is expected to be much higher, with a 2019 report from his prison psychologist referring to him accepting he preyed on 90 individuals.

Thursday's decision was made behind closed doors, despite a ruling earlier this year that it would be made in public.

This was because Worboys indicated he did not wish to make a "premature" application to be released, so a hearing was no longer necessary and the matter could be handled via paper review.

A spokesperson for the parole board said: "The panel were not satisfied that he no longer posed a risk to the public, and accordingly did not direct his release."

Along with denying his parole, the board also refused to recommend a transfer to open prison.

"It has been a hugely anxious wait knowing that Worboys was up for parole again," Carrie Johnson, the wife of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, wrote on X after the decision was announced.

"The relief I feel knowing that he will remain behind bars is hard to put into words.

"Women and girls across Britain are safer as a result of this decision."

Johnson previously waived her right to anonymity to speak of her experience with Worboys.

She wrote in the Times in 2018 that, aged 19, while waiting for a night bus in Richmond, south-west London, he had offered to give her a lift home and only charge her whatever change she had on her.

While she was in the back of his cab, he gave her a glass of champagne, which she poured away while he was not looking, she recounted. But Johnson said he insisted she drank a shot of vodka, after which she "can hardly remember a thing".

She said she did not believe he had raped her but that she "will never truly know what happened after he drugged me".

Johnson would go on to campaign against the decision to release Worboys from prison.

A four-part drama, entitled Believe Me, about Worboys' crimes is currently airing on ITV.