John Worboys will stay in prison after a parole board ruled that he remains a threat to women, refusing to release the 68-year-old for a second time and also declining to recommend a move to open conditions. The decision was made on Thursday behind closed doors, despite an earlier ruling this year that the hearing would be held in public.
Worboys is serving a life sentence for a string of sexual offences in which he lured women into his taxi late at night, told them he had won money and offered them a celebratory drink that he had laced with drugs. The board said he continues to represent a high risk of committing further serious sexual offences upon women and said it was not satisfied that he no longer posed a risk to the public.
The case has long carried weight because the harm he caused reached far beyond the first convictions that made his name notorious. Worboys, who is now known as John Radford, was first convicted in 2009 of 19 sexual offences linked to attacks on 12 women between October 2006 and February 2008, and he was given an indefinite sentence for public protection with a minimum term of eight years. More victims later came forward about crimes he admitted to that took place between 2000 and 2008, leading to a 2019 sentence of life with a minimum term of six years.
The exact scale of his offending is believed to be much wider than the 12 women identified in the first case. A 2019 report from his prison psychologist said he accepted he preyed on 90 individuals, a figure that underlines why his release has remained so heavily contested.
That pressure helped shape the last time his case reached the parole system. Worboys was previously the subject of a panel decision that he was ready for release, but two of his victims mounted a legal challenge and succeeded in overturning it. The publicity around that ruling also prompted further victims to contact police, deepening the record of abuse linked to him.
In the latest review, Worboys accepted that he does not currently meet the test for release, according to the board. The panel also said he claimed to feel enormous regret, remorse and shame towards the women he has harmed and their families and friends. But those expressions were not enough to outweigh the risk it saw in his conduct and history.
Carrie Johnson, who has campaigned around the case, said the outcome brings real relief after what she called a hugely anxious wait. She said women and girls across Britain are safer as a result of the decision, adding that the relief she felt knowing he will remain behind bars is hard to put into words.
The refusal to move Worboys to open prison means he remains in closed conditions while authorities continue to assess whether he can ever be safely released. For now, the board’s ruling answers the question that has shadowed the case for years: after repeated review, it still does not trust him to walk free among women again.
