Most true-crime dramas end happily, with the perpetrator found guilty of whatever heinous crime they’ve committed, and locked up in prison for the rest of their lives. But not Believe Me. ITV’s excellent series detailing the crimes of “black-cab rapist” John Worboys went further, moving the story on to how the victims brought a human rights case against the police – who failed to investigate their attacker – and won.
“Having the story end with him behind bars isn’t reality,” says Aimee-Ffion Edwards, who plays Sarah, a pseudonym for one of Worboys’ victims (under UK law, victims of sexual crimes have an automatic right to anonymity). “He goes to prison, but these women have to continue living their lives with this thing that has happened to them. For them, it never ends. It has such a huge ripple effect on their lives – on them, their families and the people around them, the way they see the world.”
Serial sex offender Worboys is currently serving two life sentences in prison for attacks on 12 women between 2000 and 2008. As the driver of a black cab, he would target women on their own, offer them champagne laced with sedatives and assault them in the back of his taxi. Over the 13 years he drove his cab around London, police estimate he could have raped or sexually assaulted more than 100 women.
