Rape victims angered over ‘unjust’ legal aid bill for John Worboys
Victims reacted in fury last night to the news that John Worboys, the notorious Black Cab Rapist, has racked up a legal aid bill of £166,554 since his 2007 arrest
VICTIMS were furious last night after it emerged John Worboys has racked up a legal aid bill of £166,554 since his 2007 arrest.
One said: “Is this what you call justice? Surely victims should be given legal aid to fight the case and Worboys should be made to sell his assets to finance his?”
Harry Fletcher, of the Victims Rights Campaign, said granting Worboys legal aid was “extraordinary."
The total includes £7,347 in solicitor costs while being held in police custody and £159,207 for his Crown Court trial in 2009 - with £85,704 spent on solicitors and the rest on barristers.
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A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Applicants for criminal legal aid can be required to pay contributions up to the entire cost of the defence.”
By James Mills
BUNGLING cops face being sued by victims after a landmark court ruling yesterday on women preyed on by the Black Cab Rapist.
Two of those attacked by John Worboys accused the Met of violating their human rights by failing to properly investigate their rapes, leaving the beast free for years.
Judges backed them after police, previously immune from similar negligence claims, fought the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
Legal experts immediately warned it could open the floodgates for lawsuits against police.
One of the two women who won yesterday was the first Worboys is known to have attacked.
He went on to target at least 105 others. The vindicated victim said in a message to police: “If you’d done your job properly there would not have been 105 victims there would have been one.
Do your job properly and you won’t get sued.”
The woman was attacked in 2003. It was not until 2009 that Worboys, now 60, was caged.
She and her fellow victim will share £41,250 compensation.
Earlier this month, the pair — backed by The Sun — won a judicial review into a Parole Board decision to let Worboys out after nine years.
Yesterday Supreme Court judge Lord Kerr confirmed police faced “liability” for serious investigative failings.
Martha Spurrier, of human rights group Liberty, said: “Having already let these women down in the most horrific way, the Met could have accepted the High Court’s ruling four years ago.
“Instead, they used taxpayers’ money to drag them all the way to the highest court in the land.”
Joanne Conaghan, law professor at the University of Bristol, said fear of claims may improve police investigations.
Met Deputy Commissioner Sir Craig Mackey said extra resources could now be put into probing violent sex attacks at the expense of crimes such as fraud.