Last week, John Worboys was convicted of one count of rape and seven counts of sexual assault on women he drugged and attacked in his cab. At least 85 women accused him of assault and the number is believed to be even higher than that. Due to a practice by the British Metropolitan police to fail to classify women's allegations of assault as crimes, Worboys and who knows how many other predators got away with their crimes, until last year when those complaints were finally taken seriously.
In an article from The Guardian, the pathetic excuses for these oversights include "misinterpretation of policy", "evidence of trying to keep the figures down" and training officers to be suspicious of reported crimes if the victim cannot remember what happened, "as it might be drug related". Really? In the Worboys case, you're damn right the victims could not remember what happened due to drugs, because that douche was the one drugging them. Worboys calculated his attacks and lured seemingly drunk women into his cab and drugged them using alcohol laced with sedatives. The article from The Guardian goes on to say that the number of recorded rape cases rose 25% last year after rape was deemed serious enough to be considered a crime.
Luckily, Worboys got what was coming to him, but it took the Metropolitan police so long to do something about the accusations against him that he was able victimize countless other women. The attitude of British police to be suspicious of women reporting rapes not only harmed those particular cases, but undoubtedly deterred others from stepping forward to seek help. Even female Met officers "have told campaigners they would not go to the Met if they were raped because they do not believe they would be taken seriously", states another article.
Read more in a piece from The Guardian's Vikram Dodd, which truly outlines some of the attitudes about rape in Britain. Worboys may have been convicted, but look how long it took to get there. And what about the attackers who are still free because their victims were turned away or treated like liars from the get-go because of terrifying, ass-backward policies?