A victim of black cab rapist John Worboys has broken her silence, describing the decision to release him as evidence of a society that “simply refuses to deal with rape”.
In a blog for HuffPost UK under her court pseudonym of DSD, she revealed her disbelief that she and another victim have had no other option but to launch their own crowd-funding appeal for a judicial review against the Parole Board’s decision earlier this month.
“Unbelievably we cannot access public funding to do this,” she writes.
“I am angry of course, that the responsibility for doing this, after everything I have been through, is on my shoulders again.”
DSD, who was drugged and attacked by Worboys in 2003, added: “The system failed me from beginning to end. And now, here, unbelievably, was news that the system was going to grant him the ability to potentially hurt more women.
“The Parole Board did not seek our input, and the public has still not been told exactly what evidence and arguments were considered in the actual decision to release him.”
She calls for the inclusion of a victim impact statement in Parole Board decision-making to count as material evidence to help gauge the future risks posed by an offender.
“It should help the Parole Board members understand exactly how the offender operated when he last had the opportunity, his skill in deception, his particular inclinations towards women and how much risk he himself was willing to take,” she added.
Worboys, a former stripper and adult film star, was found guilty of 19 charges of drugging and sexually assaulting 12 women passengers, in one case raping a woman. He used alcohol and drugs to incapacitate his victims between 2002 and 2008.
He was jailed indefinitely in 2009, with a minimum term of eight years.
News of his release prompted anger and questions as to why not all of the 102 complainants had their cases brought to trial, with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) defending its decision by saying they did not pass the evidential test.
Earlier this month, Justice Secretary David Gauke ruled out a judicial review of the Parole Board’s decision, telling the Commons he believed there was “no reasonable prospect of success”.
The second woman behind the appeal, using the pseudonym NBV, was attacked in 2007 and believes she is his 75 known victim. Both women used the same initials during legal proceedings in order to preserve their anonymity.
DSD continued: “I want to say as explicitly as I can that I do not seek simple retribution on this man because of what he did to me. Rather, it is my experience that tells me he is deeply predatory and likely to reoffend.
“What victims need… is broader social justice – to be believed and supported and protected after this offence, to be held by the community and to have it demonstrated that this crime is regarded as categorically inexcusable and never our fault.
“The last two weeks have felt to me as though I live in a society that simply refuses to deal with rape. It won’t grant me protection and it won’t grant me social justice. It is refusing to indicate it understands the seriousness of what this man has done and could do again. It is insulting and it is deeply frightening.”
Solicitor Harriet Wistrich at Birnberg Pierce is representing the women, who have so far raised more than £58,000 of the £100,000 they need. She will be seeking an interim relief that Worboys should not be released until after there has been a consideration of the application. She has also been contacted by a number of other victims and will be presenting a dossier of cases - including two previously unreported ones from 2002 and 2003 - to the police and CPS, requesting they investigate further and prosecute.
The Metropolitan Police is currently investigating a fresh allegation of historical sexual assault made this month against Worboys. No arrests have been made.
Wistrich said: “This will be an unprecedented legal challenge. Where a decision appears to be so irrational, as it does in this case given all the known facts, there is an arguable basis to challenge the rules preventing publication of reasons. If we get access to the reasons then we can explore grounds for challenging a decision which is so insulting and horrific for all the victims concerned.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has also lodged an application for judicial review of the Parole Board’s decision.
In a statement on Thursday he said: “It was an astonishing and deeply concerning decision that simply cannot go unchallenged… Londoners need to know that those in authority are doing everything they can to keep them safe and that means keeping dangerous individuals off our streets.”
DSD and NBV have previously brought a human rights challenge against the police “for their abject failures in the original investigation” which is currently being appealed at the Supreme Court.
To donate to their crowd-funding appeal click here.
Rape Crisis services for women and girls who have been raped or have experienced sexual violence - 0808 802 9999
Survivors UK offers support for men and boys - 0203 598 3898