Black cab rapist John Worboys has been handed two life sentences with a minimum term of six years after pleading guilty to sex attacks on four women.

The 62-year-old, who now goes by the name John Derek Radford, had been jailed indefinitely in 2009 for public protection with a minimum of eight years for sex attacks on 12 women.

He was sentenced on Tuesday at the Old Bailey after admitting four more attacks on women dating back as early as 2000, and the judge said he was still "dangerous".

Mrs Justice Maura McGowan said: "I am satisfied you are a continuing risk... I find you are currently dangerous. Your offending spans five years more than previously known. I do not know when, if ever, you will cease to be a risk."

She added the victims "are to be commended for the courage they have shown in coming forward... the consequences of what you have done to them continues".


Prosecutor Duncan Penny told the court the psychiatrist found Worboys had been "fantasising" about his attacks since 1986, while a probation report in August this year stated "he is potentially just as dangerous now as the point of the first sentence".

At his first trial at Croydon Crown Court in 2009, jurors were told that Worboys picked up his victims in London's West End and plied them with champagne laced with sedatives on the pretext of celebrating a lottery or casino win.

He was convicted of 19 offences including one count of rape, five sexual assaults, one attempted assault and 12 drugging charges.

Last year, the Parole Board ruled Worboys should remain in prison, citing his "sense of sexual entitlement" and a need to control women, after previously approving his release.

In the latest case, prosecutor Jonathan Polnay described similar attacks by Worboys on four more women, who made their allegations to police in early 2018.

Image: The cab driven by Worboys

One victim said she was attacked after she got into his cab when she left a wine bar in Mayfair in central London in 2000 or 2001, the court heard.

Another victim was a university student in London in 2003 when she was targeted after leaving a nightclub on New Oxford Street, Mr Polnay said.

Worboys, originally from Enfield, north London, pleaded guilty to two counts of administering a stupefying or overpowering drug with intent to commit rape or indecent assault.

He admitted two further charges of administering a substance with intent to commit a sexual offence under the Sexual Offences Act.

Tina Dempster, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "John Worboys is a dangerous predator who still poses a clear threat to women.

"The CPS concluded it was clearly in the public interest to prosecute him again when more victims came forward last year and revealed he had been assaulting women much earlier than he appeared prepared to accept or to admit to the Parole Board."

She added: "Worboys claims to show remorse and believes he deserves credit for these guilty pleas. But the fact is he did not accept responsibility for his first set of convictions until recently and, in a clear effort to minimise the extent of his crimes, continued to dispute victims' accounts of the latest offences.



"I would like to pay tribute to the bravery of all women who came forward and today helped keep a prolific sex offender behind bars."