The following article by W. Owl was first published in Unity, the weekly paper of the Irish Communist Party.
OVER a period of four nights ITV showed a drama based on true events that took place over 20 years ago and concerned a London taxi driver, John Worboys, who was eventually convicted in 2009 of rape and sex offences against 16 women.
His tactics were that he would cruise around night clubs looking for women. His chat up line was simple but planned. He would ask if the women had had a good night telling them how gorgeous they looked and so on. He told them he had an equally good night having won thousands of pounds at a casino. He then offered a glass of champagne badgering them to celebrate with him. Of course he could not drink because he was driving but unknown to the women he had spiked the drink. In the first three incidents the women reported the attacks to the police but were met with indifference and that is putting it mildly. They failed to carry out an accurate inquiry. For example they said they had search his house when they hadn’t. Male officers and also female officers were involved, the emphasis was often on the amount of drink they had consumed trying to make out that they were at fault. The third woman had consumed very little as her mother testified.
Eventually the case against Worboys was dropped for lack of evidence much to the frustration of the victims/survivors. One female officer actually commented to one of the women “do you really believe a cab driver would put his licence at risk by assaulting a customer?” When interviewed by the police Worboys, not surprisingly, claimed he was innocent stating that the women had “come onto him.”
However, a new set of police officers became involved and were more determined. Reported rapes continued and they easily linked them to the earlier attacks. Worboys was arrested and convicted and given an eight-year sentence. It was described by the judge as “indeterminate” which means “not exactly known.” The women were appalled but were assured by a police officer that there would be no question of parole.
Whilst in prison Worboys “found god,” sounds familiar to people in this part of the world. When interviewed by a psychologist he confessed guilt to all cases and expressed extreme remorse. All this because God had told him to. When his parole hearing came up two psychologists spoke in his favour, it then transpired that he had attacked over 100 women over a number of years, but he did not confess his guilt in some of the earlier cases, this proved to be his downfall. His parole was denied and he was given two life sentences.
One of the women was employed as a press officer at the Tory Party headquarters. She wrote a newspaper article about certain aspects of the case and challenged the Minister of Justice to read it. She was taken to one side by a colleague who told her to drop the issue if she wanted to further her career. She did not and resign her position. In February 2018 a historic ruling by the Supreme Court made it clear that the police must investigate rape properly to ensure human rights are protected. The Metropolitan Police and Home Office failed in bid to keep police immune from being held to account when there are serious failings in their investigations.
Worboys was refused parole again on the 14th of May 2026.
In Northern Ireland 30 women have been murdered since 2023, their ages ranging from 20 to 82 years’ old. In one case, that of Katie Simpson the police accepted a claim by the man eventually charged with her murder, that she had attempted suicide and treat her death as such.
Northern Ireland is now considered to be one of the most dangerous places for women in Western Europe with research showing the highest rates of domestic violence and femicide.
The question of punishment for offenders will be on a lot of people minds after a recent case where the man inflicting the violence was given an EIGHT MONTH sentence but to add insult to injury it was suspended. He was found guilty of a string of assaults which involved multiple strangulations and punches in the face which left the woman with multiple bruising. The woman involved said that during her two-and-a-half-year relationship she believed he was going to kill her “20-30 times”
In another case a man is facing charges of offences which included non-fatal strangulation, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage. Whilst awaiting trial he is wearing an electronic tag. He had the audacity to ask if his tag can be removed so he can wear shorts and take his son swimming. His solicitor claimed that not being able to remove his tag is affecting his mental health. However, the prosecuting barrister has stated that the woman remains supportive of the prosecution and that him wearing a tag and being subject to curfew gives her peace of mind. The barrister went onto state that the man was “not a stranger to these courts” having 61 previous convictions including domestic violence against the same woman.
Women need to be able to lead independent lives whilst the same time having a legal system that will protect them.