John Worboys’ sex victims win compensation from police

It is believed that Worboys, who was jailed for life in 2009 after raping and sexually assaulting more than 100 women, is Britain’s most prolific serial rapist.

At the high court, Mr Justice Green said the Met was guilty of “systemic failings”, which had allowed Worboys, who picked up women in his taxi at night and used alcohol and drugs to incapacitate them, to continue his “five to six-year spree of violent attacks”.

One of the women, identified as DSD, was the first of Worboys’ victims to make a complaint to the Met in 2003. The other, NBV, contacted them after she was attacked in July 2007. In the intervening four years, Worboys attacked 74 other women, the high court was told.

DSD told Channel 4 News on Monday (video below) that she had “lived with the guilt for 11 years” after being raped by him.

Speaking to Home Affairs Correspondent Simon Israel, she said: “The police should have done their job properly. They really convinced me it didn’t happen. I don’t want anybody else to go through what I’ve gone through.”

She and NBV were seeking a ruling from the court that the Met had breached the human rights act and they were entitled to damages.

They argued that the Met had not conducted an efficient investigation into their assaults, which meant they failed to secure the conviction of John Worboys for a long period of time, during which he was free to continue his attacks.

DSD said she suffered a depressive disorder as a result of her treatment by officers during the 2003 investigation. NBV said she suffered serious distress, anxiety, guilt and an exacerbation of post- traumatic disorder and depression because of the way she was treated by the police in 2007.

After the attack on NBV, Worboys was arrested but then released, and went on to attack another 29 women before being re-arrested in 2008 and prosecuted.

Mr Justice Green ruled that the Met was liable to the women for failures in its investigation and damages will now be assessed.

Trauma

He said: “I have learned that the effects of the assaults have stayed with them in a variety of ways over the ensuing years, manifesting themselves in depression, feelings of guilt, anxiety, and an inability to sustain relationships, including sexual relationships.

“That trauma has to be multiplied one hundred fold, and more, to begin to have a sense of the pain and suffering that Worboys’ serial predatory behaviour exerted upon his many victims.

“In this case I have identified a series of systemic failings, which went to the heart of the failure of the police to apprehend Worboys and cut short his five to six-year spree of violent attacks.”

He said the Met had recognised systemic and operational failings in its numerous reviews into the Worboys case and had now introduced remedial measures.

Apologised

The Metropolitan police said in a statement: “In summing up, the judge highlighted the ‘sensitive and dignified way’ in which the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) had conducted itself throughout the hearing; an observation based in part on a decision not to call the claimants to provide evidence.

“The MPS has previously apologised for mistakes made in the investigation of rapes committed by Worboys. The judge acknowledged that the failings in this case were very much historic; a recognition that in the interim we have made important and significant changes to the way we investigate rape, which remains one of the most challenging and complex policing issues.”

'Culture of disbelief': has the Met failed sex crimes victims? Read Simon Israel's blog