john worboys© Photo: Rex

Catching the Black Cab Rapist: Where is John Worboys now?

TV & Film Writer
March 24, 2021

Channel 5's new documentary, Predator: Catching the Black Cab Rapist, looks at the chilling crimes of taxi driver John Worboys who preyed on young women in the UK's capital for years before he was eventually caught. But where is he now?

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John Worboys, who now goes by the name John Radford, was jailed in 2009 after being found guilty of 19 offences involving attacks on 12 women, although police believe he may have had over 100 victims.

Prowling the streets of London in the early hours of the morning, Worboys would pick up single women looking for a ride home.

Predator: Catching the Black Cab Rapist airs on Channel 5 on Wednesday

Once in the back of his black cab, he would offer his victims a glass of champagne spiked with sedatives under the pretence that he was celebrating a big casino or lottery win. The women, who were eventually dropped off at their destinations, were often left with little memory of what had happened to them.

One of the fourteen women who testified against Worboys at his trial was Carrie Symonds, who last year welcomed her first child with Prime Minister Boris Johnson. She was just 19 when she stepped into Worboys' cab after enjoying a night out in Fulham in 2007.

© Photo: Getty Images

Carrie Symonds testified against Worboys

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Another one of Worboys' victims who went to the police following her attack revealed that the police initially disregarded her account. "They asked me how often I would go out drinking and they continued to ask me how much I had drunk that night," she says in the documentary. "The way they behaved made me feel like anything that had happened to me was because I deserved it."

After more women came forward with similar stories, the sick sex attacker was caught by the police in 2009 and locked up indefinitely for the public's protection.

© Photo: Channel 5

One victim says police let Worboys walk free after she reported him

Although the Parole Board said Worboys could be freed in 2018, the decision was later overturned by the High Court after many of his victims campaigned against his release. In 2019, two additional life sentences were added to his jail time after more victims came forward.

Today Worboys remains behind bars. Last month he lost a Court of Appeal challenge against the new life sentences, meaning he will not be up for release again until 2025.

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