Cops probe black cab rapist over 1990s sex attack

Detectives interview stripper and former pal of serial offender

- DAN WARBURTON and ISAAC CROWSON

BLACK cab rapist John Worboys is the subject of a fresh probe over a rape claim stretching back more than 25 years.

One of Britain's worst serial sex attackers, he was jailed in 2009 for assaults on 12 women in London.

At the time, police estimated he abused more than 100 in the capital alone in the six years up to his arrest.

Now, they have launched a new investigation into an attack in Blackpool, Lancashire, in the 1990s when he was working as a stripper.

Police from Lancashire have spoken to a former friend and fellow performer about Worboys.

It is the first time the rapist has been the focus of an investigation outside of London - where he plied women with champagne laced with sedatives in the back of his taxi.

And it comes as the 68-year-old pervert prepares a fresh bid for freedom after 16 years in jail.

A decision to release Worboys in 2018 was reversed after a massive outcry which prompted other victims to come forward.

Yesterday, his former pal told us he believes there may be hundreds more around the country - and the fiend should never be released.

UNSOLVED