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John Worboys victims win Met police compensation claim
John Worboys victims win Met police compensation claim
(about 1 hour later)
Two women who were seriously sexually assaulted by the London cab driver John Worboys have won their bid to get compensation from the Metropolitan police.
Two women who were not believed by the police when they reported being raped by a serial sexual attacker had their human rights breached by the Metropolitan police, the High Court said on Friday.
One of the women, identified only as DSD, was the first of Worboys's victims to make a complaint to the Met in 2003 – although a woman went to City of London police the previous year – while the other, NBV, contacted them after she was attacked in July 2007.
In a judgment that criticised the Metropolitan police for systemic failings in the investigation of rape, and the Independent Police Complaints Commission, Mr Justice Green found that police have a legal duty properly to investigate rape and serious assault allegations under the Human Rights Act.
Between 2002 and 2008, Worboys carried out more than 100 rapes and sexual assaults using alcohol and drugs to stupefy his victims, said Mr Justice Green at the high court in London. Worboys was jailed for life in 2009.
Not to do so is a breach of the victims' human rights, and the Met Police is liable, he ruled.
Green ruled that the Met was liable to the women for failures in its investigation. Damages will now be assessed.
The victims both made allegations that they had been raped by London black cab driver John Worboys. But the police did not believe them, and Worboys remained at large to rape other women.
DSD and NBV brought their claims under article 3 of the Human Rights Act, which relates to inhuman or degrading treatment.
Worboys, who was jailed for life in 2009, is believed to have attacked at least 105 women in a six-year spree, which was allowed to continue because of police failings.
DSD alleged that she suffered a depressive disorder as a result of her treatment by officers during the 2003 investigation, while NBV claimed that she suffered serious distress, anxiety, guilt and an exacerbation of post-traumatic disorder and depression as a result of her treatment during 2007.
The victims sued the Metropolitan police under Article 3 of the Human Rights Act, which relates to inhuman or degrading treatment. Green ruled that the Met Police was liable to the women for failures in its investigation. Damages will now be assessed.
In their test cases brought on behalf of other victims, DSD and NBV alleged that the Met failed to conduct a reasonable and efficient investigation into the assaults upon them and, as a result, failed to apprehend and secure the conviction of Worboys for an unreasonably long period of time, during which he was free to continue his attacks.
Green said: "In this case I have identified a series of systemic failings which went to the heart of the failure of the police to apprehend Worboys and cut short his five to six year spree of violent attacks."
The judge said Worboys was clinical and conniving and the effect upon the women was profound.
The first victim, known as DSD, was attacked in 2003 and was one of the first women to be raped by Worboys. The other claimant, NBV, was attacked in 2007. Both women told the police but were not believed and it was not until 2008 that Worboys was arrested.
"In the cases of DSD and NBV, I received evidence about the trauma they experienced at the time and subsequently, and have read the psychiatric reports upon them," he said.
The judge challenged the findings of the Met police's internal inquiry and the IPCC findings, which concluded that the failings of the police would most likely not have led to Warboys' earlier apprehension.
"I have learned that the effects of the assaults have stayed with them in a variety of ways over the ensuing years, manifesting themselves in depression, feelings of guilt, anxiety, and an inability to sustain relationships, including sexual relationships.
Green disagreed, saying it was "probably … but for the myriad failings in the investigative process which occurred in the years preceding the assault, NBV would not have been raped at all". He added that had a search been carried out earlier "it is obvious that … all of the rapes and assaults that were subsequently committed would have been prevented".
"That trauma has to be multiplied one hundred fold, and more, to begin to have a sense of the pain and suffering that Worboys's serial predatory behaviour exerted upon his many victims.
The first victim, on hearing the judgment, said: "After 11 years of living with guilt I can now finally start to put it all behind me and move on with my life. I have always felt responsible for what happened to Worboys' other victims but I now know this was not my fault. What I am now responsible for and am extremely proud of is making the Met finally accept they have a duty towards victims."
"But their feelings are not the end of this circle of misery because, as was evident from the psychiatric and other evidence, the effects rippled throughout the victims' families and their respective circles of friends."
The second victim added that not being believed by the police "was almost worse than the rape itself".
He said the Met was liable to both women for breach of the Human Rights Act in relation to the period between 2003 – which coincided with the first complaint to police – and 2009, when Worboys was tried.
She said: "Its been unbearably hard to bring this case and spend years going over the same events. I am so relieved that our efforts have finally resulted in justice."
He added: "In this case I have identified a series of systemic failings which went to the heart of the failure of the police to apprehend Worboys and cut short his five- to six-year spree of violent attacks."
DSD had alleged that she suffered a depressive disorder as a result of her treatment by officers during the 2003 investigation, while NBV claimed that she suffered serious distress, anxiety, guilt and an exacerbation of post-traumatic disorder and depression as a result of her treatment during 2007.
These included a substantial failure to train relevant officers in the intricacies of sexual assaults and, in particular, drug-facilitated sexual assaults and serious failures on the ground by senior officers properly to supervise investigations by more junior officers and to ensure that they were conducting investigations in accordance with the standard procedure.
Harriet Wistrich, the solicitor who acted for the victims said: "This judgment is a shocking indictment of everything wrong with the Met's policing of rape. It reveals an abject failure at every level to translate sound policies into practice.
There were also serious failures in the collection and use of intelligence sources to cross-check complaints to see if there were linkages between them, a failure to maintain the confidence of victims in the integrity of the investigative process and create an environment where victims were incentivised to bring their complaints to the police.
"It is scandalous that the only people to feel any responsibility to the scores of women who were raped by Worboys are the two claimants, who felt they must somehow be to blame because the police did not believe them."
In addition, there were numerous individual omissions in the specific cases of DSD and NBV that could also be said to be of sufficient seriousness such that, had they not occurred, the police would have been capable of capturing Worboys at a much earlier point in time.
The Metropolitan police had argued that there was no duty under the Human Rights Act to investigate rape properly, and if there was it had not been breached.
These included failures to interview vital witnesses, failures to collect key evidence, failures to follow up on CCTV and failures to prepare properly for interviews with the suspect.
In a statement on Friday the Metropolitan police said: "Our defence of these claims should not be taken as a reflection of any doubt upon the veracity of the claimants' accounts as to their treatment by Worboys; or any lack of understanding about the effects of rape on victims. Their accounts formed part of the criminal process and they each, with considerable courage, assisted the police in bringing Worboys to justice.
He added that the MPS had recognised these same systemic and operational failings in its numerous reviews into the Worboys case and had introduced remedial measures.
"The claims were not defended on the basis of factual differences between the parties; but rather based on the appropriate interpretation of European human rights law. The case has raised important arguments regarding the boundaries of police responsibility and liability and we believed that it was important for these principles to be tested before the courts."
He concluded that there was, according to well-established case law, a duty imposed upon the police to conduct investigations into particularly severe violent acts perpetrated by private parties in a timely and efficient manner.
"I should emphasise, however, that the conditions laid down in law pursuant to which the police may be liable are relatively stringent. It is not the case that every act or omission by the police which may be categorised as a failing will give rise to damages, nor is it the case that every failure to adhere to the police's own operating standards and procedures triggers liability.
"A series of exacting hurdles must be overcome before liability may be imposed. I am, however, wholly satisfied that the failings in the present case were of sufficient seriousness to pass by some considerable margin the test that is to be applied to the determination of liability."
In a statement, the Metropolitan Police Service said: "Our defence of these claims should not be taken as a reflection of any doubt upon the veracity of the claimants' accounts as to their treatment by Worboys; or any lack of understanding about the effects of rape on victims. Their accounts formed part of the criminal process and they each, with considerable courage, assisted the police in bringing Worboys to justice.
"The claims were not defended on the basis of factual differences between the parties; but rather based on the appropriate interpretation of European human rights law. The case has raised important arguments regarding the boundaries of police responsibility and liability and we believed that it was important for these principles to be tested before the courts.
"In summing up, the judge highlighted the 'sensitive and dignified way' in which the MPS had conducted itself throughout the hearing; an observation based in part on a decision not to call the claimants to provide evidence.
"The MPS has previously apologised for mistakes made in the investigation of rapes committed by Worboys.
"The judge acknowledged that the failings in this case were very much historic; a recognition that in the interim we have made important and significant changes to the way we investigate rape, which remains one of the most challenging and complex policing issues. We are committed to providing the best possible service to victims, ensuring that they are at the heart of every investigation.
"We will now take time to consider the judgment in full."
