John Worboys pleads guilty at the Old Bailey to drugging four more women

Black cab rapist John Worboys, 62, has pleaded guilty to drugging four more women in a bid to sexually assault them. Here is a timeline of some of the key events in the history of the case:

1996

Worboys passes The Knowledge to become a taxi driver in London. He also continues working as a stripper at night. 

2002

The first allegation of sexual assault is made that would later be linked to Worboys. Several more, all involving drivers of black cabs in London, are made over the next four years.

2006

October 14: A 25-year-old woman meets John Worboys in Fulham, West London, and wakes up after a drink to find him assaulting her

November 9: A journalist gets into his cab in Regent Street and has a drink before falling unconscious, and later waking up with no memory of what happened

2007

April: Worboys offers a 22-year-old woman a lift from Oxford Street to Middlesex for £30, before becoming aggressive when she refused to take a drink he offered her

June 29: Worboys offers to take an office worker from Regent Street to her home in Tufnell Park. She drank champagne and accused him of forcibly kissing her

July: Worboys picks up a student in Chelsea and offers her £50 to drink a glass of vodka, but she refuses to perform a sex act for £350

July 26: Worboys forces a pill into the mouth of a teenage student who got into his taxi at Covent Garden

July 27: Worboys is arrested after CCTV shows him carrying the teenager out of the cab at 4.30am, but he is released after denying sexual conduct

December 21: Victim claims Worboys raped her while driving her home to Putney from Tottenham Court Road. His DNA is found in a semen stain on her underwear

2008

January 3: Worboys offers to take a 29-year-old insurance broker home to Hornchurch from the City for £20. She claimed he asked her to perform a sex act before exposing himself

January 31: A 31-year-old advertising director gets into his cab outside a Soho club for Herne Hill. She drinks champagne and is assaulted

February: A new mother returns home to Twickenham and her friend tells Worboys she is on maternity leave. She has a drink and felt drowsy, and her fiance later found her slumped by the toilet at home unable to move her legs

February 13: A 30-year-old journalist takes a cab with a friend outside a Central London restaurant, but only pretends to sip a drink Worboys gives her after she noticed fizzing and foil in the glass. She claimed he asked her to perform a sex act for £5,000, but she told police after his arrest

February 15: An 18-year-old woman and her friend get into Worboys cab at Oxford Street, and he offers her a drink after her friend is dropped off . She initially refused, before losing consciousness and finding herself still in the cab when she came round

February 16: Police arrest Worboys

February 18: Worboys faces charges including one count of rape, four counts of sexual assault and six counts of administering a substance with intent, following an investigation into five attacks. Police say 30 women answered an appeal.

2009

January 20: Worboys’s trial begins as he denies 23 charges, including rape and sexual assault. He is accused of attacking 14 women

March 13: Worboys is convicted at Croydon Crown Court of one count of rape, five sexual assaults, one attempted assault and 12 drugging charges, committed from July 2007 to February 2008

April 21: Worboys is jailed indefinitely at Croydon Crown Court and told he must serve a minimum of eight years

2010

January 20: The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPPC – now the Independent Office for Police Conduct) publishes its inquiry into a series of blunders by Metropolitan Police officers, five of whom were disciplined. They are criticised for missing crucial chances to catch Worboys.

June 15: Judges throw out Worboys’ appeal against conviction.

October 14:  Scotland Yard reveals Worboys may have attacked at least 102 women and say that 19 more victims have come forward since his conviction.

2014

July 23: Two women who were seriously sexually assaulted by Worboys are awarded compensation totalling £41,250 from the Metropolitan Police. The force appeals the decision, finally losing the challenge in the Supreme Court in February 2018.

2017

November: John Worboys is granted release from prison by the Parole Board after just eight years behind bars

2018

January 4: The decision by the Parole Board is made public. Worboys’ victims were not told about the decision before it was announced

January 5: Professor Nick Hardwick, the Chairman of the Parole Board, apologises ‘unreservedly’ to victims who were not told about the decision

January 9: MPs including Labour’s Yvette Cooper and Tory Anna Soubry demand Worboys be banned from London over fears he knows where his victims live

January 13: Justice Secretary David Gauke takes advice on whether a judicial review could reverse the Parole Board’s controversial decision

January 16: The head of the Parole Board criticises ministers for considering challenging the decision

January 17: Victims launch crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to cover the legal fees for a judicial review of the case

January 19: Government decides not to pursue a legal challenge over his release

January 23: Worboys is transferred to HMP Belmarsh, south-east London, ahead of his release. Scotland Yard begin investigating a new sexual assault claim against him

January 25: London mayor Sadiq Khan files an application for a judicial review

January 26: Release of Worboys is put on hold after an ‘urgent application’ was made to the High Court on behalf of two of his victims for a stay of his release

February 4: Worboys is moved back out of the capital

February 7: Professor Hardwick outlines radical proposals to make the reasoning behind its decision public in the wake of outrage

February 21: Supreme Court rules that Met breached the human rights of two of Worboys’ victims by failing to properly investigate their claims, and awarded them £41,250. Decision could lead to other victims of serious crimes suing police forces

March 13: High Court challenge against decision to release Worboys by victims begins. It is revealed that the Parole Board decided to release Worboys because he had learned ‘not to hide negative thoughts and feelings’ during ‘positive’ treatment with psychologists. Court also hears that the board only considered the 12 victims he was convicted of attacking, not the 105 he is suspected of assaulting

March 28: High Court rules to overturn the decision to free him. Professor Hardwick stands down from role as Parole Board Chairman after being told by Justice Secretary David Gauke that his position was ‘untenable’

April 8: Mr Gauke admits he should take equal responsibility for decision that almost freed John Worboys

May: Victims and members of the public can request details of decisions to release criminals from prison for the first time.

August 13: Police question Worboys over more allegations of sexual assault

November 19: Parole Board says Worboys will remain in prison after reversing an earlier decision that he should be released

2019

May 1: Worboys is charged with four further offences of drugging women to rape or sexually assault them

May 23: Worboys appears at Westminster Magistrates’ Court by video-link from Wakefield Prison.

June 20: Worboys pleads guilty to two counts of administering a stupefying or overpowering drug with intent to commit rape or indecent assault and two counts of administering a substance with intent to commit a sexual offence under the Sexual Offences Act.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk