Black Cab Rapist John Worboys Denied Parole After Admitting Attacks on 90 Women

John Worboys has been denied parole after admitting attacks on 90 women, the Parole Board announced today. The 68-year-old, who is serving life sentences for drugging and sexually assaulting women he lured into his black cab, continues to represent a high risk of committing further serious sexual offences upon women, according to the decision.

Worboys accepts he does not currently meet the test for release and has expressed enormous regret, remorse and shame towards the women he has harmed and their families and friends. The ruling was made privately after the Parole Board determined a public hearing was not required because Worboys was not seeking release.

It was reached by a review of paper evidence led by a Parole Board member. One victim expressed relief at the outcome, stating on social media that it had been a hugely anxious wait knowing that Worboys was up for parole again. She added that women and girls across Britain are safer as a result of this decision.

Worboys was first convicted in 2009 of 19 sexual offences against 12 victims committed between October 2006 and February 2008 in London. He received an indefinite sentence for public protection with a minimum term of eight years. In December 2017 a Parole Board panel ruled he was suitable for release, but two victims successfully challenged the decision through the courts and had it overturned.

The public outcry prompted a change in rules allowing certain parole hearings to be held in public. The widespread publicity encouraged further victims to come forward, leading to additional charges covering offences dating back to 2000 which Worboys admitted.

In 2019 he was handed two life sentences with a minimum term of six years.

One victim, who was a first-year university student at the time, described being offered a lift by Worboys after waiting at a bus stop on King's Road in west London on July 26, 2007. She poured out a drink he offered her after sensing something was wrong and later took a shot of vodka he provided before recalling nothing further.

She was one of 14 women who gave evidence against him at trial and was the youngest of his known victims at the time. Following his 2009 conviction she waived her right to anonymity and campaigned against his early release, helping fundraise for the judicial review that overturned the initial parole decision.

The Parole Board will next consider Worboys for parole in around two years' time. >"It has been a hugely anxious wait knowing that Worboys was up for parole again. The relief I feel knowing that he will remain behind bars is hard to put into words.