Parole Board hearings may be opened to crime victims after black cab rapist John Worboys was almost freed

High-profile parole hearings should be held in public, the chief executive of the Parole Board has said.

Martin Jones told The Daily Telegraph such hearings should be open to the public so "justice can be seen to be done".

A review of the system and a consultation on proposed changes that will see the secrecy removed from around its work, are being announced by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) today.

Under the proposals, the biggest change to the system since parole boards were established 60 years ago, victims would be allowed to sit in on hearings which the media would be permitted to cover.

Parole Board decisions currently take place after hearings held in private, usually behind closed doors in prisons.

A new approach was promised by ministers following the John Worboys case in 2018.

The serial sex attacker, known as the black cab rapist, had served 10 years, including remand time, of an indeterminate prison sentence when the board recommended he be freed.

The decision prompted an outcry because none of those he attacked had been consulted and it was overturned by the High Court following a legal challenge brought by two of his victims.

The then-chairman of the board, Nick Hardwick, quit saying he was "sorry for the mistakes that were made in this case".

Worboys, 63, who now goes by the name John Derek Radford, had been jailed indefinitely in 2009 for public protection with a minimum of eight years for sex attacks on 12 women.

In 2019, he was handed two life sentences with a minimum term of six years after pleading guilty to sex attacks on four women dating back as early as 2000.

Worboys picked up women late at night in his job as a London taxi driver, telling them he was celebrating winning the lottery or a casino win before plying them with sedative-laced champagne.

He then sexually assaulted or raped them.

Mr Jones said the new system could be modelled on the Canadian processes in which parole cases are open to the victims, the public and the media.

"Why not hold a hearing where you can have victims sitting in the public gallery and journalists watching that?" he told the Telegraph.

"You may want to police who is at it but in reality it would be a court hearing to ensure justice is seen to be done."

The MoJ has said decisions on its review of the Parole Board system are expected to be made by the end of the year.