30 PRIVATE HIRE AND TAXI MONTHLY
MAY 2009
SHAME..SHAME..SHAME! CAB DRIVER JOHN WORBOYS JAILED FOR RAPE AND SEX ATTACKS
Following a seven-week trial, a jury convicted 51- year old black cab driver John Worboys of 19 sepa- rate offences consisting of one rape, five sexual assaults, one attempted assault and 12 drugging charges committed from July 2007 to February 2008. Worboys, feared by police to be one of Britain’s most prolific sex attackers, was starting an indeterminate jail sentence handed down by Mr Justice Penry- Davey QC at Croydon Crown Court on the 21st April. He was told he would serve a minimum of eight years before being entitled to apply for parole. Sentencing Worboys, Mr Justice Penry-Davey told him: “Drivers of black cabs have a worldwide reputation for their trust- worthiness - you saw the opportunity of exploiting that trust and sexually abusing young women.” Reports presented to the court said that Worboys, a former stripper, was a sex- ual deviant who had not
accepted his crimes and continued to pose a seri- ous risk to women. Police failings in the case meant that Worboys continued attacking women because a number of officers did not believe his victims’ claims that they had been sexually assaulted by a London cabbie. Worboys picked his lone victims up in London’s West End; many of his vic- tims had been drinking at bars and clubs in the cap- ital when they hailed a black cab to get home in the early hours of the morning. Worboys would give them champagne, claiming he had won large amounts of money (he often carried as much as £3,000 which he would brandish as proof) on the lottery or at casinos. But the drinks were mixed with powerful prescription sedatives and over-the- counter sleeping pills, and his victims were unable to prevent him assaulting them, the court heard. Many women were left with little memory of their
ordeals and could only recall falling asleep in the back of the cab before waking up at home. Mr Justice Penry-Davey told him: “As somebody with an enduring and pow- erful interest in sexual matters you saw an oppor- tunity through cab driving. “You developed and per- fected a web of deceit that was sufficient to ensnare young, intelligent and sen- sible young women who had enjoyed a night out and whose only mistake, as it turned out, was to get into your cab late at night.” Police discovered what they described as a “rape kit” - including gloves, alcohol, glasses, drugs, condoms and a sex toy - concealed in a plastic bag in another vehicle at Wor- boys’
home in
Rotherhithe. The judge said that a report on Worboys found that he was a “repetitive predatory sexual offender” who had not accepted his crimes and had shown a “significant degree of sex- ual deviance”. A further
report suggested that he posed a “significant risk of re-offending”. Worboys was a full-time stripper known as Terry the Minder between 1987 and 1999, and adored the attention lavished on him by women at hen nights and parties. When he gave up performing, Wor- boys, a licensed cab driver since 1996, turned to a dif- ferent method to get attention. His first known attack was in October 2006 when he drugged a 26-year old office worker. Worboys attacked a further six women until July 2007 when he was arrested for an alleged sexual assault. It was reported that police in Plumstead, south-east London, missed an oppor- tunity to end his offending when they arrested Wor- boys in July 2007 over an attack on a 19-year old student. It emerged dur- ing the trial that detectives did not act on the incrimi- nating results of toxicology tests that found suspicious drugs in the
victim’s blood. They also failed at that time to search his home or exam- ine his vehicle to double-check his story. Several officers face disci- plinary action after an inquiry was launched by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. It has been ordered that the proceeds from the sale of Worboys’ £5,000 cab, plus £3,680 found in a car- rier bag when he was arrested, be shared among his 12 victims. Fol- lowing his conviction in March, police said that Worboys could be linked to 85 attacks in the Lon- don and Dorset areas dating back to 2002. Detectives believe that he could have attacked as many as 500 women dur- ing his 12-year career as a taxi driver. Since he was charged, mixed reports tell of any number of further potential victims, from 11 up to 40, having contacted the police since the trial, and senior officers have said they will interview Worboys in prison in an
attempt to clear up dozens of unsolved sex crimes. We thought that PHTM readers might be interest- ed in hearing Worboys’ view of the proceedings. It is reported that he broke down in tears on several occasions during his trial, stating that his mother had died when he was 13 years old and he “missed the cuddles”, somehow justifying his sexually deviant behaviour. Asked if he lied about where he lived, he said he had done. “The circum- stances were that I must get these women home safely, which I always did. If I saw a woman trying to get an illegal minicab I used to say I lived out their way. I didn’t want them to think they were taking me out of my way.” Apart from the slightly bizarre slant on “Who’s taking you home tonight?”, in all seriousness we are certain that PHTM readers will be more than pleased that John Worboys is off the streets for a good long while.
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