Officer who cracked serial rapist Worboys case says justice system ‘close to exploding’

The police officer in charge of solving the case of the “black-cab rapist” John Worboys says similar crimes could still be happening today as the criminal justice system is “close to exploding”. Tim Grattan-Kane was the senior investigating officer of the team who arrested Worboys in 2008 after they pieced together the accounts of numerous women who had reported being given drugged champagne by a London taxi driver, who then assaulted them. Grattan-Kane, who is now retired, said the overstretched justice system was “close to exploding with a frightening bang”. He said he knew of young police officers who were frustrated by the system and “waiting to get results from the Crown Prosecution Service, who are underfunded and taking so long to make decisions”. He also said there was a lack of support workers “because of financial cuts” and getting trials for cases was difficult because so many courts had been closed. According to the Law Society , more than half the courts in England and Wales were closed between 2010 and 2019. Speaking before the broadcast of a new ITV drama, Believe Me , about the women whose testimony convicted Worboys, Grattan-Kane said he believed there remained a “real problem” with “men administering drugs to facilitate sexual assault”. He pointed to the Gisèle Pelicot case in France, and that of Vikas Nath , a Knightsbridge restaurateur who is facing trial on allegations that he raped and sexually assaulted a woman who had been drugged, which he denies. …