Black Cab rapist John Worboys’ next parole hearing to be held in public
His parole hearing in will be open to the public amid victims’ concerns
Black cab rapist John Worboys will have his next parole hearing held in public, officials have ruled.
The 68-year-old will be considered for release by a parole board panel on June 9 and 10 this year, after he was sentenced to life with a minimum term of six years in 2019.
Worboys is a serial sex attacker who lured women into his cab late at night, falsely pretending to have won money and offering them an apparently celebratory drink which was drugged.
He 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.
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 given two life sentences with a minimum term of six years.
Professor of criminal law and criminal justice at the University of Sussex, Stephen Shute, successfully applied for the hearing to take place in public, while three out of seven victims consulted by the parole board opposed the move.
Panel chairman Peter Rook KC said while he had "deep sympathy" for the women's fears that they will be retraumatised by publicity, he added: "I have no doubt that it is in the public interest that this case should be a public hearing."