The lawyer who helped John Worboy’s victims successfully sue the Metropolitan police for failing to properly investigate their rape allegations has said that there is still ‘a lot of change’ needed.
Tonight, ITV’s true-crime drama Believe Me returns for its third episode as it delves into into the case of one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders and the group of women who fought to get justice.
Harriet Wistrich, who is being played by Phillipa Dunne in ITV’s Believe Me, was one of the key lawyers in helping these women challenge the Met over their handling of the Worboys case.
Speaking to Metro, the founder and CEO of the legal charity Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) discussed how policing culture ‘still requires a lot more transformation’.
‘Because of the work that we do at the Centre for Women’s Justice, we continue to advise a lot of rape victims who are going through the criminal justice process,’ she says.
‘So we can see where things are still failing all the time… we see a lot of the worst of it. We’re also aware of some really good important initiatives that exist to try and improve rape investigation and rape prosecution.
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‘But we also see the whole expose of misogyny within policing over the last few years, which means that there are a lot of people in policing who aren’t fit to be in the police at all.
‘Unfortunately, policing culture still requires a lot more transformation to get the right people in there doing the job.’
Believe Me tells not only the true story of how black cap rapist Worboys preyed on women who trusted him as a licensed taxi driver, but also the Met Police’s failings and how he was allowed to continue reoffending for years despite multiple victims coming forward.
In 2009, Worboys was finally convicted for sexual assaults against 12 women, despite police estimating that he preyed on more than 100 people.
A decade later, a parole board then ruled that the 68-year-old was safe to be freed.
What have viewers made of ITV’s Believe Me?
However, representing two of his victims, Harriet played a pivotal role in overturning the decision as she launched a successful judicial review in the High Court.
Asked about the ‘incredibly courageous’ victims that came forward, the prominent human rights lawyer – who is known for representing victims of sexual abuse and challenging police failures – tells me: ‘They were both just incredibly principled.
‘They were determined to get some accountability and to try and stop this from happening again.
‘Both of them had suffered life-changing, traumatic experiences but they just felt that the legal system had failed them so much so they felt driven to bring about change.’
Discussing the positive response to the ITV series, Harriet also adds: ‘People seem to regard it as a very powerful drama [and they are] shocked by the level of police failings.
‘[It’s] very strong in portraying just how hard the experience is to go through and how courageous the women were.’
Commenting on what shocked her most about the police’s investigation into Worboys’ victims, Harriet also says: ‘They were just so lacking in any investigative curiosity and essentially that was because there was just no kind of interest or hunger.
‘Had they really listened to the women when they came to them and done a proper job, then this could have been solved very quickly.
‘It was the scale and repeat nature of the failures that’s quite shocking as well as lots of the individual ones.’
Discussing how Worboys was denied parole for a second time earlier this week, Harriet adds that she is ‘not at all surprised’ and praised Believe Me for ‘getting across just how dangerous he is and how difficult he is to trust.’
This comes after actor Danny Mays, who plays Worboys in the drama, told Metro that playing one of Britain’s worst ever sexual predators ‘absolutely terrified’ him.
Believe Me returns to ITV1 at 9pm tonight.
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