Carrie Johnson: Up to 1,000 victims of black-cab rapist John Worboys

Carrie Johnson, wife of former prime minister Boris Johnson, said there could be “up to 1,000, if not more,” victims of black-cab rapist John Worboys.

Johnson, who helped bring the serial sex attacker to justice, said she had been contacted by more women who believed they had been assaulted by him.

Worboys is serving a life sentence after drugging women in his taxi by offering them spiked drinks after pretending he had won money.

Last week the Parole Board said he “continues to represent a high risk of committing further serious sexual offences against women”.

Johnson, one of several women who spoke out to keep Worboys behind bars, said news that he had been refused parole came as a “huge relief” to many survivors.

She told Good Morning Britain: “The truth is that his crimes span from, what we know, from 2000 up to when he was convicted in 2009. And he was a cab driver for that duration, out potentially every night in his cab, so there could be up to 1,000, if not more than that.”

She said more people had come forward saying they believed they had been in his cab after watching an ITV dramatisation of the case.

This “might really help keep him behind bars for good”, she added.

“I think there’ll be women who, like me, were drugged, who might not realise they were drugged, who just thought ‘god, maybe that last drink didn’t sit well with me’. Or now maybe they’ve seen what’s happened and they think ‘oh well, it’s done’. I would urge them to come forward if they can,” she said.

Worboys was first convicted in 2009 of 19 sexual offences linked to attacks on 12 women between October 2006 and February 2008.

He was given an indefinite sentence for public protection with a minimum term of eight years.

In 2019 he was sentenced to life with a minimum term of six years after more victims came forward about crimes he admitted to, which took place between 2000 and 2008.

Johnson was a 19-year-old university student when she met Worboys in 2007 after a night out in Chelsea as she waited for a night bus to her mother’s house in south-west London.

He offered to take her there for £5, and in his cab, he offered her a celebratory glass of champagne, saying he had won a lot of money at a casino.

“Thankfully though – and my goodness, I am thankful – I didn’t drink it,” she wrote in the Daily Mail. “As we continued chatting, I slowly poured the champagne, bit by bit, on to the carpeted floor of the taxi so he wouldn’t notice.”

She recalled that he pulled up near Putney Common, got out and returned with vodka, then insisted she take a “quick shot” despite her protests. He dropped her off after she said her mother was waiting, and gave her his phone number. She later passed out in a bathtub at home. She identified him in a lineup and provided the phone number to police, leading to further victims coming forward. Worboys will be due for parole consideration again in about two years.