The Parole Board ruled John Worboys no longer posed a threat to the public and should be released from prison
The Mayor of London has filed an application for a judicial review of the decision to free notorious black cab rapist John Worboys.
Fury erupted earlier this month after the Parole Board ruled that the former London taxi driver no longer posed a threat to the public and directed that he should be released from top-security HMP Wakefield.
Mr Khan said he is now seeking a judicial review of the Parole Board’s decision to release John Worboys.
Worboys received an indeterminate sentence in 2009, with a minimum term of eight years, for drugging and sexually assaulting 12 women in the back of his cab.
But police have linked the prolific offender to more than 100 attacks.
The mayor said: ‘I have today lodged with the Court an application for judicial review of the Parole Board’s decision to release the convicted rapist John Worboys.
‘It was an astonishing and deeply concerning decision that simply cannot go unchallenged. For victims, and all Londoners, it must be properly scrutinised in the courts. The Chair of the Parole Board has welcomed this scrutiny.
‘I will always put the safety of Londoners, and the needs of victims, first – which is why I instructed leading Counsel to begin this process last week.
‘Londoners need to know that those in authority are doing everything they can to keep them safe, and that means keeping dangerous individuals off our streets.’
News that the board had decided to free the former stripper after just a decade behind bars was met with outrage by his victims and in Parliament.
The controversial decision means he could walk out of jail within days.
Mr Khan said he is now seeking a judicial review of the Parole Board’s decision to release John Worboys
Worboys drove a black cab in London and preyed on young, vulnerable women who he thought had been drinking, offering them a lift home and tricking them into drinking spiked alcohol
Five days after Worboys’ trial ended in March 2009, police wrote to the victims and confirmed more than 80 women had come forward to police.
Alongside victims of the black cab rapist, the London Mayor had vowed to launch court challenges to block his release after the Justice Secretary refused to do so.
He had said he was ‘deeply concerned and unhappy about the prospect of John Worboys’s impending release.’
My Khan added: ‘Londoners’ safety is my number one priority – and I am deeply worried and unhappy that the Parole Board plan to release John Worboys onto the streets of our city where many of his victims live and work.
‘If the Parole Board are standing by their decision to release John Worboys I want their decision properly scrutinised by the courts. It would simply be unacceptable for this man to be released before then.
‘That’s why I have written to the Parole Board, demanding that John Worboys must not be released until proper independent judicial scrutiny of the decision has taken place.
Police found a rape kit in the back of Worboys’ taxi which including sleeping tablets, condoms and an ashtray he used to crush the drugs (top right)
The Mayor had said he was ‘deeply concerned and unhappy about the prospect of John Worboys’s impending release’. Right, Worboys arriving at court in 2008
‘The public wants to be reassured the decision by the Parole Board was taken properly, and that his victims and other Londoners will receive the protection they deserve.
‘It’s in the interests of the victims and the wider public that this information is published, and that those in positions of power and responsibility are doing everything they can to keep the public safe.’
Worboys was convicted of one rape, five sex assaults, an attempted sex assault and a dozen charges of drugging his victims.
He drove a black cab in London and preyed on young, vulnerable women who he thought had been drinking, offering them a lift home and tricking them into drinking spiked alcohol to help him celebrate a bogus lottery win.