Met attacked over hunt for cab rapist John Worboys

Attacked: Caroline Symonds said there was a lack of respect to John Worboys' victims

Scotland Yard was severely criticised today for its handling of rape victims in a hard-hitting report into a catalogue of failures in investigating taxi driver John Worboys.

An Independent Police Complaints Commission report accuses police of bungling an investigation into the rapist, who is suspected of attacks on 200 women. The 51-year-old former porn star was jailed for life last year for drugging and sexually assaulting women passengers over six years.

The report said Worboys could have been stopped in July 2007 after he drugged and molested one of his first known victims. The taxi driver picked up the 19-year-old university student in the West End and was arrested after she complained to police but denied he had any contact with her.

The IPCC found that two officers from Plumstead police station refused to believe the victim's story. In a report to be published tomorrow the commission says the officer in charge had a "mindset" that a black cab driver could not commit such an offence. The report describes a culture in which officers did not believe women if they made allegations of a sex assault after a night out.

Its criticisms were today echoed by one of the women targeted by Worboys. Caroline Symonds said: "If the police had done their job, what happened to me would never have happened. They were too slow off the mark. There is a serious lack of respect for rape victims. He should have been stopped from day one."

The 21-year-old was spotted by Worboys as she waited for a bus in the King's Road in July 2007. When Worboys pulled over without being hailed, Miss Symonds, who lived in Richmond, told him she only had £5. Worboys lied that he was on his way home.

Miss Symonds, who works in PR, said he gave her champagne after telling her he had won thousands in a casino. She does not remember much after this, apart from feeling dizzy and arriving home two hours later. She only came forward to police after a friend saw news reports about Worboys. "I'll never know for sure what happened. I hope the IPCC sends out a message to the victims that they will be taken seriously."

Worboys was arrested and bailed before his first victim had given a statement which meant that officers could not have known what to ask him.

Several officers face possible disciplinary action following the IPCC inquiry. One officer at Plumstead lied to a victim saying the case had been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service when it had not. A detective inspector also failed to thoroughly review the evidence before the case was binned.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in