John Worboys: Black cab rapist could be banned from London, says parole chief

The head of the Parole Board today raised fresh hopes that black cab rapist John Worboys could be banned from London after his release as he vowed to do “everything possible” to respond to victims’ concerns.

Nick Hardwick told the Evening Standard that every effort would be made to consider victims’ requests about how Worboys should be managed once he is freed from prison.

He promised that Worboys, who was jailed in 2009 for 19 offences, including a rape and five sexual assaults, against 12 women, would not be released until “careful” consideration had been given to victims’ concerns.

But he said public safety would be the overriding objective of the Parole Board when finalising the restrictions imposed on Worboys and that he could still be allowed to live in the capital if that was the best place to monitor him.

Numerous victims, as well as MPs, have called for Worboys to be excluded from London as part of the licence conditions. Mr Hardwick, the chairman of the Parole Board, said it had yet to receive any formal representations from victims, who must convey concerns via the Victim Contact Service.

He added: “He’s not going to be released until we have considered this carefully. There’s an opportunity for victims to talk to the people involved with this. Those will then get relayed to us. We will do everything we can to meet victims’ concerns.”

He said that a ban from London was possible, but that the Parole Board needed to prioritise public safety and would keep an “open mind” on the issue until it had heard all views.

“We are confident he is not going to reoffend, but if we were wrong the first consideration is: are we confident that we can pick this up really quickly.

“The way we get that is advice through all the agencies — probation, police and so on. It’s about what’s the safest way of doing it. We rely on the agencies that are going to be doing it to give us their professional advice and will listen very carefully to that. If we can meet victims’ concerns safely then of course we want to do that. But victims don’t want us to do something that’s not safe.”

Mr Hardwick said that “if Worboys didn’t like it that would be tough. The first consideration is public safety and the other one is the victims.”

An application for permission to bring a judicial review of the Parole Board’s decision to free Worboys is expected to be made by some victims later this week.

Last week the Justice Secretary David Gauke decided not to pursue such action as he did not think it would succeed.