Carrie Johnson, who was drugged by the black-cab rapist John Worboys and later helped bring him to justice, has said the true scale of his offending could reach “up to 1,000, if not more” victims. Speaking after the Parole Board refused to release Worboys last month, she told Good Morning Britain that his crimes spanned from 2000 until his conviction in 2009, and that he was “out potentially every night in his cab” during that period. Her estimate reflects not only the length of his offending but also the possibility that tourists and foreign visitors who regularly use black cabs may have been attacked without ever reporting it.
She said the recent ITV drama Believe Me, which dramatises the survivors’ fight for justice, had prompted more women to contact her directly on social media, saying they believed they had been in his taxi. “I think there’ll be women who, like me, were drugged, who might not realise they were drugged, who just thought: ‘God, maybe that last drink didn’t sit well with me,'” she said. She urged them to come forward, adding that the increased attention “might really help keep him behind bars for good”.
Johnson’s own encounter with Worboys came in 2007, when she was a 19-year-old university student. After a night out in Chelsea, she was waiting for a night bus to her mother’s house in south-west London when Worboys offered her a lift for £5. In the cab, he told her he had won a lot of money at a casino and offered her a celebratory glass of champagne. “Thankfully though – and my goodness, I am thankful – I didn’t drink it,” she later wrote in the Daily Mail. “As we continued chatting, I slowly poured the champagne, bit by bit, on to the carpeted floor of the taxi so he wouldn’t notice.”
Worboys pulled up near Putney Common, a dark and deserted spot, and got out of the cab – she believes to wait for the drugged drink to take effect. He returned with a bottle of vodka, climbed into the back seat, and insisted she take “a quick shot” despite her protests. Johnson managed to get him to drop her off after saying her mother was waiting, and crucially he gave her his phone number in case she ever needed a lift again. Once home, she said she “never made it into my bed” but instead passed out in the bathroom, lying fully clothed in the empty bathtub.
When allegations against Worboys emerged, Johnson came forward, identified him in a police lineup, and provided the phone number he had given her. Her evidence helped secure his initial prosecution and encouraged other victims to do the same.
How Worboys drugged his victims
Worboys, a licensed London taxi driver, developed a methodical and predatory approach that he repeated for years. His modus operandi was to pick up lone female passengers late at night, then offer them a spiked drink – usually champagne or vodka – under the pretence of celebrating a lottery or casino win. He would claim he had just won a large sum of money and wanted to share his good fortune. The drinks were laced with sedatives or alcohol intended to incapacitate his victims.
He often drove to secluded locations, such as Putney Common, where he would wait for the drugs to take effect. If a victim refused the initial drink, he would press another – as he did with Johnson when he returned with a bottle of vodka after she had discreetly disposed of the champagne. Multiple women reported waking up disoriented, with no clear memory of what had happened, and some did not realise they had been drugged at all. Johnson noted that some victims might dismiss the experience as “that last drink didn’t sit well with me”.
Worboys’s offending is now known to have extended from at least 2000 through to his arrest in 2008 – a period during which he was driving his cab virtually every night. Reports of suspicious incidents in black cabs dating back to 2002 were not properly investigated, and despite multiple women reporting him to the police, officers failed to connect the dots. The similarities in his methods – the casino story, the spiked champagne, the secluded stop – were not recognised as a pattern, allowing him to continue attacking women for years.
Convictions and police failures
Worboys was first convicted in 2009 of 19 sexual offences against 12 women, committed between July 2007 and February 2008. He received an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection, with a minimum term of eight years. In 2019, after further allegations emerged and following a review by the Metropolitan Police, he pleaded guilty to additional offences against four more women dating back to 2000. He was then handed two life sentences with a minimum term of six years.
The investigation was marred by systemic failures. Women who reported Worboys to the police were not taken seriously, evidence was not collected, and investigations were dropped. These failures led to a landmark legal challenge by two of his victims, known in court as DSD and NBV. They sued the Metropolitan Police, arguing that the inadequate investigations breached their human rights. In 2018, the High Court ruled in their favour, a decision later upheld by the Supreme Court. The ruling established that police have a legal duty to investigate serious violence against women effectively and can be held accountable for significant failings – a precedent that has since been relied upon by other victims seeking justice.
Parole battles and future review
Worboys’s potential release has been a source of public controversy and legal action. In late 2017, the Parole Board initially approved his release, sparking widespread outrage. Johnson and other victims successfully challenged that decision in court, keeping him in prison. Last month, the Parole Board again refused to release him, stating that he “continues to represent a high risk of committing further serious sexual offences against women”. The panel was not satisfied that he no longer posed a risk to the public and also denied a transfer to an open prison.
Worboys will be considered for parole again in about two years’ time, although the exact timeline depends on decisions from the Ministry of Justice and further rehabilitative work by Worboys himself. The ITV drama Believe Me, which worked with a survivors’ advisory group to ensure accuracy, has been described as a “wake-up call” for the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, and the Parole Board. Johnson, who is portrayed in the series, has said that the renewed attention may help ensure Worboys never walks free again.
