Believe Me writer on spotlighting victim's stories, not John Worboys: "These women went through the most horrendous process"

This article contains discussion of subjects including sexual assault and rape that some readers may find upsetting.

As ITV's former head of factual drama, Believe Me creator Jeff Pope knows a thing or two about crafting a gripping series based on real events, to say the least.

Known for his work on TV shows like The Reckoning, Archie, The Walk-In and Four Lives, Pope's latest project centres on the victims and survivors of John Worboys, who was dubbed by the media as the 'Black Cab Rapist'.

The new four-part series focuses on "how the victims of one of the most prolific sex attackers in British history were failed by the system", according to the show's description, with Aimée-Ffion Edwards, Aasiya Shah and Miriam Petche all taking on leading roles as women who were attacked by Worboys.

While true crime continues to be a booming genre, Pope's new series does away with centring Worboys and instead, platforms the voices of those he assaulted and impacted.

Speaking to Radio Times and other press during a press conference for the series, Pope said of his narrative focus for Believe Me: "That's really been my process for a long time now. I'm not really interested in trying to get inside the mind of psychopaths.

"What does interest me is the proximity to crime and to evil, and Julia Ford, the director, myself and Saurabh [Kakkar], the producer, really settled very early in the creative process on making this very much something that is the experience of the victim or survivor. Because these women were drugged, they could tell something had happened but they didn't know exactly what had happened – we don't show that."

He continued: "So, we take the audience along the journey with these women as they go through on the day they report being assaulted. Hours and hours and hours of interviews, intimate examinations, more interviews. Samples are taken, intimate swabs. These women just went through the most horrendous process all, ultimately, to be told, we don't believe a crime has happened. Essentially, we don't believe you."

The new ITV drama focuses on the stories of Sarah (Aimée-Ffion Edwards) and Laila (Aasiya Shah), who reported sexual assaults by Worboys (Daniel Mays), but ultimately, how the Metropolitan Police's response led them to feel that they were not believed.

As per the series synopsis: "We see what countless women say they have to go through after reporting being raped, the indignity of multiple interviews and intimate evidence gathering, and how they can face sceptical lines of questioning from the police.

"Believe Me will relate how the Met’s failings effectively left Worboys free to commit assaults undetected for many years; following his trial came the realisation that he was linked to allegations of further sexual offences against over a hundred women."

In regards to why he spotlighted these stories in particular in Believe Me, Pope has also said: "Well, why we focused on Sarah and Laila and Carrie, whose story is different, was because they were the key to everything. Sarah reported what had happened to her and Worboys had even taken her to a police station.

"Even if, on the night, because Sarah was out of it, they couldn't really dig into what happened to her, the very least you'd imagine is that the police would have taken the details of the cab driver, or there would have been CCTV which would give you the registration number of his cab."

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He continued: "How those two things didn't happen is utterly beyond me. So, we follow Sarah's story, and we see how she and Laila sued the police under the Human Rights Act and won. It had never been done before; they broke new ground. Then when Worboys was about to be released on parole, it was the same women who then brought the judicial review to keep him in prison.

"When the judicial review was brought about, Worboys had said his offending began in 2005 but Sarah’s attack was 2003. So, finally, she got that moment when what had happened to her was crucial in getting justice. Sarah runs all the way through, and essentially the same is true of Laila."

For information and support, please visit Rape Crisis or The Survivors Trust.

Believe Me will air on ITV from 10 May with all four episodes available to stream on ITVX.

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