How Boris Johnson’s wife was a ‘consultant’ on new ‘Black Cab Rapist’ drama after she was targeted by warped John Warboys
A new ITV drama is revisiting one of Britain’s most disturbing criminal cases, drawing on testimony from victims including Carrie Johnson.
Carrie Johnson was consulted about a new drama on ‘Black Cab Rapist’ John Worboys after she was targeted by the predator.
The wife of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, now 38, was 19-years-old and a first year student at Warwick University in 2007 when she was driven home from a King's Road nightclub in Fulham by Worboys, and it has now emerged she recently gave up hours of her time to help Jeff Pope create his new drama Believe Me about the man now renowned as one of Britain’s worst serial sex offenders.
Screenwriter and TV producer Jeff, 64 – who won a Bafta for his 2006 crime drama See No Evil: The Moors Murders – said during a question and answer session ahead of Believe Me airing in May: “I spoke to all three of the key women that the story is about.
“I spent a lot of time with Sarah and Laila and yes I did speak to Carrie (Johnson.)
“I went and spent time with her at her home. She was extremely forthcoming and open about everyone that had happened. That’s a long process because number one you need to gain their trust.”
Predator Worboys gave Carrie champagne, which she poured away as she was suspicious it had been spiked.
He then offered £350 to perform a sex act which she declined, before accepting a shot of vodka, which from that point on she can only remember vomiting and laughing hysterically upon arriving home, before passing out until 3pm the next day.
Carrie was one of 14 victims to testify against Worboys at his trial and she later waived her right to anonymity to talk about the incident.
She later used her experience and knowledge as Head of Communications for the Conservative Party to help prevent Worboys from being released from prison on parole.
Jeff added his ultimate goal with Believe Me is to tell the stories of Worboys’ victims and the effect his crimes had on their lives.
He also wanted to highlight the absurdity in the law which means that victims of sexual assault are not believed.
Jeff said: “That’s been my process for a long time now. I’m not really interested in trying to get into the mind of psychopaths.
“What has interested me is the proximity of the crime to evil.
“The director Julia Ford and myself really settled very early in the creative process on making this something that is very much about the experience of the victim or survivor.
“Because these women were drugged and they could tell something had happened but didn’t know exactly what happened we don’t show that.
“We take the audience on a long journey with these women as they go through the day they report being assaulted, hours and hours of interviews, intimate examinations, more interviews, samples are taken, initiate swabs, these women just went through the most horrendous process only to be ultimately told we don’t believe a crime has happened.
“I think what really has consumed me with this project. I can remember spending months and months being angry as I was writing and pulling together all the elements of research.
“I just feel this is a story that is a shocking kind of state of the nation piece in regards to how we, in the UK, and specifically how our police treat sexual offences; sexual assault, rape.
“I think what the story really shows is that there is too much - and I believe this culture exists right now - of an emphasis placed on proving difficult to solve crimes such as rape and sexual assault.
“Evidently there will be two sides, mostly, to what happened. But there is too much of a prevalence to get these kind of offences off of crime figures so that clear-up rates look artificially better and investigations into things that offences like these that can destroy lives are shut down.
“There’s time and energy and commitment being heaped on working out the best way to not investigate sexual assault and rape. That’s what I think this show is about.
“The title suggests it itself, Believe Me, at its core it’s about these two women who we call in our drama Sarah and Laila and even though there was utterly compelling evidence that something horrible had happened to them, that they’d been raped, they just weren’t believed, it’s as simple as that.”
Believe Me is set to start on Sunday, 10 May, at 9pm on ITV1.
