Violence against women is “at breaking point” and the justice system needs to change, according to the writer of new ITV drama Believe Me about the survivors of “black-cab rapist” John Worboys.
Jeff Pope, who is also writing a BBC drama about the murder of Sarah Everard, said he wanted to tell these stories because “something needs to happen” and the “police just won’t seem to me to change”.
Believe Me tells the true story of how the women who were attacked by Worboys were failed and doubted by the Metropolitan police. He was eventually jailed in 2019, with the help of evidence from Carrie Symonds (now married to Boris Johnson) who was drugged, but escaped being raped. Symonds is portrayed in Believe Me by Industry actor Miriam Petche.
Believe Me also highlights the “utterly horrific [figure] … that for every 100 rapes and sexual assaults reported to the police only three proceed to charges”, explained Pope.
Talking about violence towards women, Pope said: “I think we’re at a bit of a breaking point. If you take this and the piece about Sarah, which is still a long way off, these are both huge moments, where … this stuff is being done to women and nothing [changes]. Something needs to happen.
“Just because you’re a man and it’s not happening to you it doesn’t mean you can forget about it … you’ve got to lance the boil. It’s astonishing how little understanding men have of women’s lives. I think we’re approaching a breaking point.”
Pope, who has written numerous true crime series and films such as Philomena and Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes said he does not have an anti-police agenda but “the Met is not yet fit for the role in 2026” and needs to be more open and honest.
“The Met say they’re bringing in a new initiative and ‘We’ve changed our procedures and this can’t ever happen again’. They say that endlessly [but] something more fundamental needs to happen … The starting point should be ‘We believe you’.”
He thinks the problem goes back to Tony Blair’s premiership, when the police became “far too preoccupied with figures”. During research for the programme by his company Etta Pictures he and the executive producer Saurabh Kakkar were struck by how much “thought, care and effort” goes into declaring sexual assaults as non-crimes.
Pope said it made him angry how the women were treated by police, such as making insinuations about their characters by asking if they were the kind of woman who “would wear red nail varnish”, or making them retell their story numerous times.
He said he had not realised how much women have to think about “things that a man wouldn’t even think about” such as wearing earbuds while jogging, and hoped Believe Me would change men’s perspectives as well as how sexual assault cases were dealt with.
Acknowledging some people might question why a man wrote Believe Me, Pope said: “What happened to them after that night, how they were treated … it’s not about gender. Yes I’m a man but I’m a writer saying this is something that needs to be addressed.”
Kakkar said that Etta and ITV Studios worked with Worboys survivors to tell their stories accurately, with some of them visiting the film set. They have all, including Symonds, seen Believe Me.
Due to the subject matter, Kakkar said Etta had “lots of wellbeing coordinators on set … to create an incredibly empathetic environment”, in addition to intimacy coordinators.
Worboys is due for a parole review this year over additional assaults not covered by the drama.
Symonds said: “I hope Believe Me serves as a wake-up call to the police, the CPS and the Parole Board. Far too often, women and girls are failed by the very institutions meant to protect them.
“The treatment of the victims in this case was truly shameful. Reform matters but what we urgently need above all is a profound shift in culture.”
