John Worboys' wife and girlfriend and everything they've said about being with the Black Cab Rapist
He raped hundreds of women and then went home to a 'normal' relationship
John Worboys is now widely recognised as a serial rapist who targeted vulnerable women while working as a black cab driver, but every night he went home to his wife or girlfriend.
The licensed taxi driver preyed on dozens, but most likely hundreds, of young women while posing as a ‘respectable’ licensed cabbie. In ITV’s new drama Believe Me, writer Jeff Pope focuses on the victims of one of the most prolific sex attackers in British history. Specifically, how they were failed by the system.
While 14 charges were initially bought against him (against 12 women), police believe they could have been up to 500 possible victims. And some might say John Worboys’ unknowing wife and, later, his girlfriend, were his victims too.
Who was John Worboys’ wife?
John Worboys, who is portrayed by Daniel Mays in the ITV drama Believe Me, was finally arrested, imprisoned, and subsequently convicted in 2007. He was found guilty of sexually assaulting 12 women between 2006 and 2008, with their cases selected from a large number of suspected further victims.
When he was arrested, he had a girlfriend. And, before that, he had a wife. John Worboys married Jean Clayton in 1991 after first meeting in 1988. However, they separated after four unhappily married years in 1995.
They first met in a pub in Hackney, East London, in 1988. They wed in 1991 and he became stepdad to her daughters Carrie-Ann and Clare, and son Stephen. However, Jean said Worboys was a “sex addict” who spied on the girls, then teens, as they undressed.
She went on to describe their marriage as abusive and violent, labelling him as a “peeping Tom”. She separated from him after she caught him spying on her daughter from a previous relationship.
When a parole board considered him suitable for freedom in 2009, she expressed her disgust at his potential release. At the time, she said that he was a dangerous man who would have eventually committed murder.
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‘He was the biggest mistake of my life’
Talking to The Sun in 2018 about ex-husband John Worboys’ potential parole, Jean Clayton called him a “dangerous man” and said he should stay in prison forever. She called him “the worst husband a woman could ever ask for”.
She said: “I feel utter disgust. If he hadn’t been caught and taken to court he would have murdered somebody. It’s very scary. He was the biggest mistake of my life. No one knows what I went through.”
The mother-of-three (none with John Worboys) said she ended their abusive relationship after she caught him spying on her two daughters when they were teenagers.
He tried to give them massages, and was described as “creepy” and “conniving”. Later, as a 40-year-old, Jean’s daughter Carrie-Ann told the newspaper: “He made our family’s life a misery. I can’t imagine what these women are feeling.”
One night, John came home with mud on his trousers and confessed to tailing a drunk woman and assaulting her when she fell asleep. It was the final straw for Jean, who still “gets mad at herself for what she’s put her children through”.
Jean has now remarried and manages a bar in Bulgaria.
John Worboys had a girlfriend at the time of his arrest
At the time of his arrest in 2008, John Worboys was in a new relationship with a woman called Kathy Martin. She had no knowledge of his double life.
Divorcee Kathy, then 44 and living in London’s Enfield, was in a relationship with Worboys for two years prior to his arrest. She often spent weekends at his house, describing him during that time as a “gentleman” and a “trustworthy” person.
Shameless John Worboys told his unsuspecting girlfriend that sex crimes were “terrible” before protesting his innocence from behind bars.
She stood by him after his arrest, and even supported him during the trial and attended the court hearings. However, following his conviction, she revealed she had no idea about his predatory, night-time activities and was shocked by his arrest. She referred to his “double life” which he kept hidden from her.
She said at the time: “If I was forced to list 100 men that I know and who would be the least likely to do this, it would be John. […] It’s unbelievable, you would expect people like that to look like a monster. I still wake up and can’t believe it’s him.”
Girlfriend Kathy subsequently dumped him, and described John Worboys as a “good conman” who had managed to trick her. She left the court in tears and subsequently offered to be a prosecution witness against the ex-stripper and amateur porn star. She eventually gave a 322-page statement.
John Worboys blamed girlfriend for his attacks
Viewers of Believe Me will feel repulsed by particular scenes in episode 4. We see John Worboys (played by Daniel Mays) attempting to blame his ex-girlfriend for turning him into a rapist.
Another inmate tells him he needs to address why he started offending in the first place before he’ll ever be considered for parole. And once again he tries to save his own skin by blaming someone else – his girlfriend at the end.
He tells a forensic psychologist sent to review his case: “She was an old girlfriend. She left me in summer 2005. I was really cut up about it. And then we were sort of on/off. A year later, she phoned me and asked me to come pick her up and take her back to mine. I was excited about this but, when I got to the bar, she was absolutely hammered. Totally drunk. All I could do was take her home to her mums. I was on my own again, absolutely furious. That night I went looking for someone. That would have been the first one, around September/October 2006.”
The timeline suggests that, even if this story were true and not made up to get parole, John Worboys was referring to an unknown girlfriend. Of course, we now know that John Worboys started offending long before 2005, even though none of his early victims were able to prosecute.
Read more: New documentaries and true crime on TV and streaming in May 2026
