Believe Me viewers disgusted by police who 'gaslit' the rape victims of 'monster' John Worboys: 'Appalling behaviour'
It's a harrowing, but necessary watch
Believe Me heartbreakingly dramatises how Black Cab Rapist John Worboys continued raping women for years because police failed to believe his victims.
The Metropolitan Police could have stopped John Worboys sooner. Their failure to act potentially left hundreds of women vulnerable to his disgusting crimes.
The four-part drama tells the story of how the system failed Worboys’ victims. As a result, he became one of the most prolific sex offenders in British history.
Writer Jeff Pope focuses on the ordeals faced by Sarah and Laila after they reported sexual assaults. Horrifyingly, the Met Police failed to properly investigate their allegations, leaving them feeling ignored and disbelieved. Sadly, countless women say they endure the same treatment after reporting rape — repeated interviews, invasive evidence gathering, and sceptical questioning from police.
Believe Me: Police failings allowed Worboys to keep attacking women
Believe Me shows how failures within the Met effectively allowed John Worboys to continue assaulting women undetected for years. After his trial, investigators shockingly linked him to allegations involving more than a hundred women. Sarah and Laila rightly joined forces with solicitor Harriet Wistrich and barrister Phillippa Kaufmann QC to sue the Metropolitan Police under the Human Rights Act for failing to properly investigate their allegations of sexual assault.
Police subjected Sarah and Laila — and likely countless other women — to degrading treatment that deepened their distress. Believe Me shows officers judging Worboys’ victims for drinking alcohol, taking drugs, and even wearing red nail varnish.
As one viewer wrote: “A woman is allowed to have a drink. A woman is allowed to wear red nail varnish, and a woman is allowed to wear nice clothes. Men are NOT allowed to r@pe women or men. #Believe Me.”
‘Believe Me highlights how inept victim-blaming police can be’
Unsurprisingly, Believe Me left viewers furious. Many described the series as “hard to watch” and “harrowing”, while others labelled John Worboys a “monster”.
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One viewer said: “Believe Me really highlights just how inept victim-blaming police are.”
Another wrote: “John Worboys has a parole hearing scheduled for June 2026. He received two life sentences for his vicious crimes and has served 17 years so far. After watching #BelieveMe, I hope that [bleep] never gets out. I can’t even process how police interrogated these women.”
A third added: “So have I got this right? That poor girl waited all day for police before they took her to the test centre and left her there at 3am. Then they asked her to come back in the morning to repeat the same statement and endure more gaslighting? #BelieveMe.”
“I was actually screaming at the TV,” another viewer said. “The police acted so badly and ignorantly.”
Countless others accused police of gaslighting the rape victims. Some compared the treatment to the Peter Sutcliffe case, writing: “Police blamed victims because of drink and drugs, just like they did with the Yorkshire Ripper victims because they were prostitutes.”
‘My blood is boiling at the lack of empathy towards women’
Furious fans flooded platforms like X and Reddit to express their anger. One wrote: “The police’s ineptitude and ridiculous procedures… Their lack of empathy towards these women, along with their delays, meant hundreds more women were raped before officers finally caught him. Appalling.”
Another said: “Just when you think the Met Police can’t become any more incompetent, you watch Believe Me and realise they can. Police treated these women with complete contempt, and that’s a national disgrace. I hope some officers struggle to sleep at night.”
A third added: “The investigation team behaved appallingly. I hope they all recognise themselves in this drama.”
“I binge-watched every episode of Believe Me, and the police should feel ashamed. Watching how close he came to being released made me feel physically sick. That 3% statistic will stay with me for a long time.”
Shockingly, only 3% of reported rapes resulted in charges.
Believe Me on ITV exposes shocking police incompetence
Writer Jeff Pope explained why he wanted to bring attention to the case. He said: “I met with Laila and Sarah, and horrific similarities quickly emerged in what they had experienced. Ultimately, they felt no one believed them. We uncovered the story of a horrific predatory offender who assaulted — by conservative estimates — more than 100 women over many years.
“But we also realised the system failed these women badly, particularly in the way police treated them. When a woman reports sexual assault or rape, police procedure should begin from a position of belief. In so many of these cases, the opposite happened.”
Jeff admitted he spent “a lot of time feeling angry on these women’s behalf as each new insult and degrading experience came to light”.
Read more: Believe Me: Who was Dominic? ITV honours him in sombre end-of-credits tribute
