An ITV true crime drama about the black cab driver who police believe carried out 105 sexual offences against women across London is being made. John Worboys, who became known as the black cab rapist after attacking victims in his taxi, was jailed in 2009 for assaults on 12 women in London and then was found guilty of four further offences in May 2019 after more victims came forward.
Worboys, from Enfield and now known as John Radford, is serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection which means he could not be released until the Parole Board concluded he no longer poses a danger. This means he may never be let out of prison.
ITV has commissioned a four-part drama, titled Believe Me, to recount the story of victims who were attacked by Worboys. Believe Me has been written by Bafta-award winning screenwriter Jeff Pope and features Slow Horses star Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Industry’s Miriam Petche and Bloods actress Aasiya Shah – who will play the women Worboys sexually assaulted.
The series follows women as they report sexual assaults by Worboys and their fight to have their allegations believed and investigated by the Metropolitan Police, leading them to take legal action against the force under the Human Rights Act.
Worboys will be played by English actor Daniel Mays, who starred in series 3 of Line of Duty as Sergeant Danny Waldron, an armed response officer whose troubled and abusive childhood comes under investigation. Mays has been a regular on our TV screens since he first appeared in EastEnders in 2000 and will soon appear as DCI Chris Hudson in the Thursday Murder Club film adaptation on Netflix, based on Richard Osman’s crime solving books.
Pope said: “The series goes on an emotional journey with the victims of Worboys’ attacks, showing what happened to them when they reported being raped and assaulted, the pain and indignity of the process and how this de-humanised them. But most shocking of all is how they felt that not being believed by the police and having the attacks recorded, essentially, as non-crimes, was as traumatising for them as the actual assaults.”
How Worboys tricked victims into having alcohol in his cab
Worboys became known as the black cab rapist after attacking victims in his taxi. In a number of instances, he pretended to be celebrating a win on the horses, or the lottery, as a pretext to giving his victims alcohol, which he had laced with drugs.
During his sentencing at the Old Bailey, the court heard he had t. Worboys also said he had been “fantasising” about his crimes since 1986, and was motivated by “hostility towards women”.
A probation report in August 2019 found: “He is potentially just as dangerous now as the point of the first sentence.”
Do we know when Believe Me will be on ITV?
The new drama has just been announced, details were first released on Thursday (August 7) so it is too early to know exactly when it will be shown on TV. It has been confirmed the series will air on ITV1 and STV and be available for streaming on ITVX and STV Player.
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