New fears John Worboys’ bid for freedom could be held in secret after all following black cab serial rapist’s appeal against public parole hearing

Black cab rapist John Worboys may have his request for a secret parole hearing despite his victims’ objections.

A public hearing was due to be held in June to decide whether the rapist, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009 for sexual assault and drugging 12 women, will be allowed to leave prison.

However, it was reported that the hearing was held behind closed doors.

Rather than confronting their victim, the abuser will see their fate decided in a ‘article review’ meeting after asking for change.

This means that the details of their evidence will not be reported and will only be summarized after a decision has been made.

The 68-year-old serial sex attacker was due to face a public hearing in June after seeing a previous objection to the format rejected in January.

Worboys had previously argued that public scrutiny would prevent him from giving appropriate evidence.

He was jailed 17 years ago for 19 sexual offenses involving 12 victims who were attacked in London between October 2006 and February 2008.

Worboys previously worked as a male stripper and became known as the ‘black cab rapist’ after attacking victims in his hackney car (his is pictured)

The Parole Board controversially decided to release Worboys in December 2017, but the decision was overturned after two victims opposed the call.

His case led to sweeping changes to the parole system; Some hearings were allowed to be held in public, and scrutiny of how release decisions were made increased.

Sun He stated that Worboys’ latest bid for freedom would be kept secret.

One of the taxi rapist’s victims told the newspaper she was “deeply disappointed that this was allowed”.

He added: ‘It feels like another attempt to manipulate the system.’

The decision on the attacker’s parole hearing comes as ITV prepares to broadcast Believe Me, a program aired after years of police errors in the case.

The program claims a group of survivors reported the Worboys between 2002 and 2008 but were ignored by police officers.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman told The Sun: ‘John Worboys’ crimes were appalling and our thoughts remain with the victims.

‘Decisions regarding public parole hearings are made by the independent Parole Board.’

The 68-year-old serial sex attacker was expected to attend a Parole Board panel on June 9 and 10

Worboys, from Enfield, north London, previously worked as a male stripper and became known as the ‘black cab rapist’ after attacking victims in his hackney car.

In many of the incidents, he pretended to be celebrating a horse race win or a lottery prize in order to give his victims drugged alcohol.

The court heard that during his first sentence at the Old Bailey he admitted to a psychologist that he had given alcohol to dozens of women and drugged around a quarter of them after being inspired by pornography.

Worboys told psychiatrists that he had been ‘fantasizing’ about his crimes since 1986 and that he acted out of ‘misogyny’.