Parole Board refuses release for John Worboys after victim testimony

John Worboys, the man known as the “black cab rapist,” will remain in prison after the Parole Board refused to direct his release this week, according to statements made by one of his victims, Carrie Johnson. Johnson, who was 19 at the time of the attack, said the decision was “a hugely anxious wait” for victims and added: “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 described how Worboys picked her up in his taxi late at night after she had been waiting alone at a bus stop following an evening out in Chelsea. In her account, Worboys claimed he had won money at a casino and offered her a celebratory drink, which she later said had been drugged. After he appeared to leave the cab for about ten minutes while telling her he was going to stop for a brief reason, she said he returned with a further drink, and that she was forced to take a shot of vodka. Johnson later said she became violently ill, passed out in the bathroom, and woke the next afternoon. Years afterward, she said a friend alerted her to similarities between her experience and reports about a taxi...