Becki Houlston was one of more than 100 women believed to have been drugged by Worboys after shocking police failings allowed him free to drug and sexually abuse victims for years
A woman targeted by black cab rapist John Worboys has vowed to fight to keep him in jail as his story features tonight in a major ITV drama.
Becki Houlston was one of more than 100 women believed to have been drugged by Worboys after shocking police failings allowed him free to abuse victims. Between 2002 and 2008, 14 women reported they had been drugged and attacked by the driver of a black taxi. But police failed to link the crimes.
Several of the victims were simply not believed because they had been drinking. And when officers did finally arrest Worboys after he assaulted a teenage student they first bungled the evidence and then decided there was no case to answer. He was freed – and went on to attack at least 30 more women.
Speaking before ITV drama, Believe Me, tells the harrowing story on Sunday night, Becki told the Sun on Sunday: “I don’t know if I’m a victim of sexual assault or even rape. I am still disturbed by the uncertainty of not knowing what happened to me.”
Becki said she helped producers of the four-part series in an effort to try to keep the monster behind bars. She said: “I know I was drugged but that’s all I know for certain. He didn’t rape everyone, he sexually assaulted some, and some victims, like me, don’t even know what he did. I think that’s the difficulty with any drugging offences. I can’t find safety in certainty.
“While that uncertainty is tough, so too is knowing it was premeditated. Somebody has hunted you down with the sole intention of seriously harming you.”
In July 2007, Worboys was arrested on suspicion of drugging and sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman. Tests showed traces of drugs in her urine. But detectives did not bother to search his home in Rotherhithe, South East London. They also missed crucial evidence by taking the wrong day’s CCTV footage from a nightclub. By the time they realised their error, the correct film had been erased.
Finally, it was decided there was no case to answer and Worboys was released by police in Greenwich. The links between the attacks were eventually spotted in February 2008 and an elite murder squad began a hunt for the rogue cabbie.
Worboys was finally convicted of attacking 12 women and given an indefinite sentence in 2009. A decision to grant parole in 2017 was overturned after a public outcry. Only one of the victims had been informed of the decision while the Parole Board failed to take into account the alleged attacks prosecutors had not pursued.
In 2019 Worboys, now known as John Radford, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of six years for four further offences. A fresh parole hearing scheduled for next month.
Becki said: “It’s tough knowing Worboys could be out any minute. I’m determined to stop that.” Becki, a trauma therapist, was 29 when she went to a local club in Bournemouth with pals in 2002 and had two drinks.
After leaving she was picked up by the black cab driver, who told her he owned a flat nearby. Becki said: “He started chatting to me, being a cheeky, chappy London cabbie. He said he’d been to the casino earlier that night and won a load of money.
“He had champagne and pressured me, ‘Come on, celebrate for me, I’ve got to drive the taxi’. It became easier to agree. He was staring at me in the mirror, 100 per cent focused. I sipped it,it was warm and bitter.
“We got to my driveway but every time I tried to pay him, he kept me in conversation. He topped my drink up. I kept sipping. My last recollection, which I only remembered when I did my police witness statement, was that he’d somehow moved from the driver’s to the passenger seat.”
She came forward to lawyer Harriet Wistrich, from legal charity The Centre For Women’s Justice in 2018 when she recognised Worboys in the press. Becki’s case was not one of the further crimes he was convicted of but she is determined to continue campaigning to keep him in jail.
Now she hopes the TV drama, which sees Daniel Mays play Worboys, will encourage more women to come forward.
A Met Police spokesperson said: “We have previously apologised for the serious failing in the investigation and the distress caused to all those affected. This case led to significant improvements in the way rape and sexual offences are investigated, with a greater focus on suspects and their offending.”
