Black cab rapist John Worboys could have his wish for a secret parole hearing granted despite his victims’ protests.
A public hearing was set for June to decide if the rapist should be allowed out of prison after he was jailed for life in 2009 for sexual assaults and drugging 12 women.
But it has reportedly been switched to a closed-doors hearing.
Instead of facing his victims the abuser will see his fate decided in a ‘papers review’ meeting after he asked for the change.
It means details of his evidence will not be reported and will only be summarised after a decision is made.
The serial sex attacker, 68, was set to face a public hearing in June after seeing a previous challenge to the format dismissed in January.
Worboys had previously argued that being scrutinised in public would prevent him from giving proper evidence.
He was jailed 17 years ago for 19 sexual offences involving 12 victims attacked in London between October 2006 and February 2008.
Black cab rapist John Worboys could face a private parole hearing after officials reportedly allowed his appeal to keep it behind closed doors
Worboys previously worked as a male stripper and became known as the ‘black cab rapist’ after attacking victims in his hackney carriage (his is pictured)
The Parole Board had controversially decided to release Worboys in December 2017 but the decision was overturned after two of his victims fought the call.
His case prompted sweeping changes to the parole system, allowing some hearings to be held in public and increasing scrutiny of how release decisions are made.
The Sun reported that Worboys’ latest bid for freedom would be held in secret.
One of the cab rapist’s victims told the paper she was ‘deeply disappointed this has been allowed’.
She added: ‘It feels like yet another attempt to manipulate the system.’
The decision on the attacker’s parole hearing came as ITV prepared to air Believe Me, a programme following years of police blunders around the case.
A string of survivors reported Worboys between 2002 and 2008 but were ignored by officers, the show claims.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman told The Sun: ‘John Worboys’ crimes were horrific and our thoughts remain with the victims.
‘Decisions on public parole hearings are made by the independent Parole Board.’
The 68-year-old serial sex attacker had been set for a Parole Board panel on June 9 and 10
Worboys, from Enfield, North London, had previously worked as a male stripper and became known as the ‘black cab rapist’ after attacking victims in his hackney carriage.
In several of the incidents, he pretended to be celebrating a horse racing win or a lottery prize as a pretext to giving his victims alcohol which he had laced with drugs.
During his original sentencing at the Old Bailey, the court heard he had admitted to a psychologist that he plied dozens of women with alcohol and drugged around a quarter of them after being inspired by pornography.
Worboys told psychiatrists he had been ‘fantasising’ about his crimes since 1986, and was motivated by ‘hostility towards women’.
