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Black cab driver 'drugged women then sexually assaulted them'
Danny Brierley21 Jan 2009
A LONDON black cab driver toured the West End at night looking for vulnerable women who he picked up, drugged and sexually assaulted, a court was told today.
John Worboys, 51, selected women who had been drinking and won their confidence by telling them he had won the Lottery. He then invited them to share a glass of champagne or soft drink laced with a date rape drug, it is alleged.
When they were unconscious and "completely at his mercy" he carried out his attacks in the back of the taxi, the jury at Croydon crown court was told.
Johannah Cutts, QC, prosecuting, said: "In each case he was able to see when his passenger became affected by the drug. Many of the complainants remember falling asleep or losing consciousness.
"Most have no recollection of what happened thereafter until they got home, or in some cases until the next day. Many are not able to say whether they were sexually assaulted or not.
"But the defendant's intent in drugging them was clear. Some of the complainants did come round a little in the cab having consumed the drink.
"Those that did come round remember the defendant touching them sexually in some way. One of them remembers him actually having sexual intercourse with her and was powerless to resist."
Worboys, of Rotherhithe, is accused of drugging 14 women in an 18-month period until his arrest last February. He denies 14 charges of administering a substance with intent, seven charges of sex assault, one of rape and one attempted sex assault. Miss Cutts said his job gave him the perfect opportunity to select his victims. "His intent was to ensure that they were completely at his mercy, and then to sexually molest them.
"Having each girl alone in his cab was a start, but this defendant, we say, wanted to ensure that there would be no struggle, no difficulty in achieving his aim. How did he achieve that? He did it by drugging them."
Miss Cutts told the hearing that if there was no one suitable hailing his cab, he often pulled up at the side of the road to offer a lift to women walking home. Often the women in question did not have enough change for a taxi but Worboys would find out where they lived and offer to take them.
He often told the women he had won money at a casino or through the Lottery. To substantiate this he had a bundle of cash in a carrier bag, which he kept in the front of his cab.
It is alleged Worboys used this story to make it easier to get women to have a drink with him. Miss Cutts said: "As you might expect, the reaction of the passengers to whom the defendant gave the drinks differed. Some were enthusiastic and happy to have the drink; others would have preferred not to, but felt it would have been rude to refuse." Worboys would then get into the back of the cab and engage his victim in further conversation, this time of a sexual nature, as he watched the drug take effect, it is alleged.
The court was told that Worboys drove a woman back to her home in Twickenham, after she had had a night out with friends in a bar near London Bridge railway station.
The next day, the woman called police and made a complaint, similar to others that had already been logged.
Unknown to each other, the court was told, each of the women had given remarkably similar accounts of the time they had spent with him.
The defendant was arrested on 15 February last year. His home was searched, and in his Fiat Punto police found alcohol, glasses, condoms, a sex toy and sedative medication.
Worboys's DNA was found on clothing belonging to one of the complainants, the court heard, and there was also forensic evidence to show that the sex toy had been used to assault one of the women, the prosecution said.
The trial continues.
