Police: Convicted Britain Cab Driver Assaulted 500 Women Saturday, March 14, 2009
A cab driver convicted Friday of sex attacks on a dozen women is believed to be Britain's most prolific sex attacker. John Worboys was found guilty of 19 charges of drugging and sexually assaulting 12 female passengers. In one case he raped his victim. He was cleared of two counts of drugging women, but is thought to have attacked more than 500 during his 13-year career as a trusted licensed taxi driver. A senior detective told The Times: "The truth is we'll never know how many women Worboys attacked but it could easily be hundreds and hundreds." Worboys, dressed in a grey suit and tie, put his face in his hands and shook his head as he stood in the dock. As the guilty verdict for rape was read out he said: "Oh my God," and wiped away tears before Justice Penry-Davey told him to expect a "very substantial term of imprisonment." He then looked at a friend in the public gallery and shook his head in disbelief. The former porn actor and stripper, who performed under the name of Terry the Minder at gay venues, was arrested by police in the summer of 2007 but was freed to attack scores more women, at least 30 while he was on bail. Senior officers have discovered that 12 women had gone to the Metropolitan Police before Worboys was charged to complain about a black cab driver trying to drug, sexually assault or generally pester them, but their claims were never linked. Since his arrest, 75 more women have come forward to tell police they believe that Worboys attacked them too, including four from Dorset, where he had an apartment and would sometimes take his taxi. He was charged with attacking 14 women in a 16-month period after looking for potential victims coming out of nightclubs and bars, Croydon Crown court was told. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509210,00.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Taxi driver rapist John Worboys is Britain's most prolific sex attacker March 14, 2009 The driver of a black cab convicted yesterday of sex attacks on a dozen women is believed to be Britain's most prolific sex attacker. John Worboys was found guilty of 19 charges of drugging and sexually assaulting 12 female passengers. In one case he raped his victim. He was cleared of two counts of drugging women, but is thought to have attacked more than 500 during his 13-year career as a trusted licensed taxi driver. A senior detective told The Times: "The truth is we'll never know how many women Worboys attacked but it could easily be hundreds and hundreds." Worboys, dressed in a grey suit and tie, put his face in his hands and shook his head as he stood in the dock. As the guilty verdict for rape was read out he said: "Oh my God," and wiped away tears before Mr Justice Penry-Davey told him to expect a "very substantial term of imprisonment". He then looked at a friend in the public gallery and shook his head in desbelief. The former porn actor and stripper, who performed under the name of Terry the Minder at hen parties and gay venues, was arrested by police in the summer of 2007 but was freed to attack scores more women, at least 30 while he was on bail. Senior officers have discovered that 12 women had gone to the Metropolitan Police before Worboys was charged to complain about a black cab driver trying to drug, sexually assault or generally pester them, but their claims were never linked. Since his arrest, 75 more women have come forward to tell police they believe that Worboys attacked them too, including four from Dorset, where he had a flat and would sometimes take his taxi. He was charged with attacking 14 women in a 16-month period after looking for potential victims coming out of nightclubs and pubs, Croydon Crown court was told. Johanna Cutts, QC, for the prosecution, said that his intent "was to ensure that they were completely at his mercy and then to sexually molest them". She added: "Having each girl alone in his cab was a start but this defendant, we say, wanted to ensure that there would be no struggle, no difficultly in achieving his aim. How did he do that? He did it by drugging them." Once Worboys, 51, identified a victim he would offer her a cheap fare home before regaling her with a story about how he had won tens of thousands of pounds at a casino and inviting her to join him in a celabratory drink. Worboys kept his "tool kit", which included powerful prescribed and over-the-counter sedatives, a bag of cash, alcoholic drinks, including champagne, wine, whisky, gin and vodka, condoms and gloves. He would crush the pills before putting them in the drinks and then drive around waiting for the drugs to take effect. Journeys that should have taken minutes in the early hours of the morning took more than an hour. He would stop his taxi and get in the back to chat to the women, clumsily bringing the conversation around to sex. He told the court that he simply wanted female attention because his mother had died when he was 13 and he was starved of "cuddles". He would ask if they would have sex for £1,000, as a woman once told him she had. He would also offer them money to perform sex acts. It was, he repeatedly told the jury, "just my banter" and he did not mean anything by it. Worboys would persuade them to have a drink, which he had spiked with a powerful sedative drug and then assault them on the back seat of his cab before taking them home. The claims of 12 women who went to the police between 2003 and February last year would have been looked at by officers from the Met's much vaunted Sapphire Units - dedicated teams deployed across London to deal only with rape and sexual assault allegations. But they failed to link the attacks. A senior officer told The Times: "We are really in a lot of trouble over this. Some heads are on the block. Some women were not treated well by police, some were told to 'F*** off, black cab drivers don't do that sort of thing'. Others were not taken seriously because they were drunk." Some officers were influenced by a police chiefs' report in 2006 that found little evidence of date-rape drug attacks. The officer added: "We have been told time and again that drug-assisted rape doesn't happen. Well it does. We should have identified this series of attacks earlier." Now, after a seven-month review, control of Sapphire Units is being taken away from borough level and being placed under the umbrella of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command at Scotland Yard. The Met says that the move is coincidental. When police arrested Worboys in July 2007 after he was caught on CCTV dropping a student off, police partly bungled the operation and he was freed on bail before a decision was made not to take the matter further. This case has been voluntarily sent to the Independent Police Complaints Commission by the Met. Although senior officers accept that the 12 attacks should have been linked after he was arrested for assaulting the student they say that it would have been difficult to do so beforehand. Since then the policy at Sapphire Units has been changed and all serious sexual offences are now referred to the Crown Prosecution Service. In February last year, after three attacks were finally linked, the case was handed to the Homicide and Serious Crime Command headed by Detective Chief Inspector Tim Grattan-Kane. Within six days Worboys was in custody, only hours after targeting his last victim on Valentine's Day last year. Officers made a public appeal to discover if any women had been attacked. A counsellor at a rape crisis centre remembered one woman mentioning being assaulted by a black cab driver and called police. After the victim positively identified Warboys police went to his house in Rotherhithe, southeast London, and arrested him as he lay in bed. They had to make sure that he did not read the appeal and get rid of his rape kit and destroy any forensic evidence. Adjourning sentencing until April for psychiatric reports, Justice Penry-Davey told Worboys: "You have heard already that I do not intend to sentence you today. I am putting the case back for a pre-sentencing report and also a psychiatric report. You must be under no illusion that this case requires and will get a very substantial term of imprisonment. "You must not understand from my putting the case back that any more lenient course could be taken. It is important I know as much as possible about you before I decide what the appropriate sentence is going to be." Speaking outside the court yesterday, Detective Inspector Dave Reid, said: "I want to praise the courage of every single one of the women who came forward to police during this inquiry. It has been a major inquiry for the Metropolitan police. "In particular I would like to thank all 14 women who gave evidence in the crown court over the past eight weeks." Det Insp Reid will now be writing to all 85 women who came forward, telling them of the conviction and praising their courage. The Met has now set up a freephone number for women who believe they may have been attacked by John Worboys. The number is 0800 121 4441. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5894879.ece -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments: Those Muslim who claim that some parts of Islam no longer need to be followed today (like traveling without a mahram or being alone with a non-mahram) need to pay special attention to this story and realize that all of Islam's rules need to be followed more today than ever before.
