Christian Anti-Rape Campaigner Protests Release of UK Man Who 'Found God' After Raping 100 Women
Female politicians and Christian anti-rape campaigners in the U.K. are protesting the release of notorious sex offender John Worboys from prison. He has claimed that he found God and been forgiven for his crimes.
Worboys, 60, a black-cab driver, was recently freed, BBC News reported on Monday, after serving eight years in prison for assaulting 12 women.
Though the driver was only convicted of committing 12 attacks, he is widely believed to have carried out more than 100 rapes and sexual assaults in London between 2002 and 2008.
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The Daily Star Sunday reported on an interview with a prison source who said that Worboys has turned to God and converted to Christianity.
The convict apparently found religion while attending Church of England services at maximum security Wakefield jail, West Yorks, and began reading his Bible every day.
"A cynical person might think he's done this as the best way of getting parole," the source noted of the former stripper and amateur porn star.
"He then shows remorse, admits his guilt and fulfills the requirements of the parole board," the source added.
Gavin Drake, a Christian man whose deceased wife was a rape survivor, said that his spouse would have been "horrified" at Worboys release.
"She was one who campaigned and promoted the idea and the concept of forgiveness but also at the same time the concept of justice," Drake told Premier's News Hour.
"These were not things that were in competition with each other, but they were two sides of the same coin," he added.
The campaigner insisted that releasing a man after so few years in prison for such horrific crimes is an "injustice."
"A man convicted of the offences that this particular offender had been convicted of should be serving a lot more than 10 years in prison ... as a means of punishment [and] for the protection of women," he continued.
Professor Nick Hardwick, chairman of the parole board, has meanwhile apologized for the failure to inform the victims of Worboys' release.
"We recognize that we deal with some very dangerous people and we won't and can't release them until we are as confident as we can be that it is safe to do so," Hardwick argued.
"But in the end, it is not an exact science," he added.
"We look at a whole range of evidence, both what happened in the original offences, the judge's sentencing remarks, the programs or work a prisoner has done, reports from people who know the prisoner well."
Still, politicians, such as Conservative MP Anna Soubry, told Home Secretary Amber Rudd that women's safety must come first.
"What assurances can the Home Secretary give us that upon his release, if he has to be released I may say, women will be safe?" Soubry asked at the House of Commons.
Rudd responded by stating: "Making women safe and ensuring that we have the legislation in place for that is a priority for me and for this government."
