David Gauke admits he was to blame for the John Worboys parole shambles

JUSTICE Secretary David Gauke has admitted he is to blame for the parole shambles which has rocked public confidence in law and order.

But he vowed to work tirelessly to fix the shattered system — and will carry the can if he fails.

In an exclusive interview, Mr Gauke said he accepts full responsibility for a decision which almost let black cab rapist John Worboys go free.

He told The Sun on Sunday: “Clearly, things didn’t go as they should have gone.

“Look, I made the decision. I accept responsibility, so I’m not hiding behind my advisers. It’s my responsibility entirely.”

After “a lot of hard thinking” Mr Gauke is determined to stay and make the criminal justice system fully fit for purpose.

He insists he has learned many lessons from the Worboys case. But after just 90 bruising days in the job, he is under no illusion about the daunting scale of the task.

Dad-of-three Mr Gauke, 46, is the fifth Justice Secretary in just three years and, after the Worboys fiasco, it looked like there might soon be a sixth.

He faced calls to quit after he refused to block a Parole Board decision to free the rapist, leaving it for victims to mount a legal challenge.

Mr Gauke said: “I felt it sensible to take advice from a top barrister and I interrogated that advice and concluded it was right I don’t take the action.

“I was pleased it was successful and Worboys remains behind bars — I didn’t want Worboys released. My focus now is ensuring we learn the lessons from the case.

“There’s a lot of hard thinking we all need do to ensure we make the necessary changes and that’s where my focus is.”

Mr Gauke is also determined to halt the spiral of chaos caused by drugs in jails.

He admits to almost weekly frustration when he reads in The Sun on Sunday about the collapse of discipline behind bars.

He once spent a night inside to raise charity cash, but has seen problems close-up on six prison visits in his new job.

He said in his Westminster office: “The drugs issue is a big problem and the root cause of nearly all bad behaviour. It is deeply depressing when you learn of people who go into prison without a drugs problem and leave with one.

“Drugs get in the way of discipline and rehabilitation. They end up with prisoners owing money to other inmates and that in turn can result in violence as debts are collected.

“Alternatively we see prisoners commit violence as a way of repaying a drug debt. It must be urgently addressed.”

Phones in jail are also a menace, with 20,000 devices or SIM cards seized last year.

Mr Gauke wants more searches and greater use of intelligence, including swift downloading of information so officers can intercept drones delivering drugs.

He is a firm believer that “prison works”, but says “work matters” too.

The minister, who moved to the Ministry of Justice from his last Cabinet job at the Department for Work and Pensions, said: “If people leaving jail get a job, somewhere to live and have family links, they’re far less likely to reoffend.

“When I was at the DWP, I learned that work really matters.

"It is a way of getting people on the straight and narrow and keeping them there.

“So I am keen to ensure we get ex-offenders into work.

“There are some fabulous employers who do great things, such as Timpson’s, Halfords and so on.”

Mr Gauke is keen to dispel perceptions that crooks have more rights than victims.

He’ll unveil a Victims’ Strategy this summer to ensure they aren’t excluded from the process.

He said: “It is not the rich and powerful that need an effective criminal justice system. It’s not them who are likely to be victims of crime, but ordinary members of the public.

“I’m acutely aware that whatever I can achieve to make the system better will have a real impact on the lives of many Sun on Sunday readers.”

Mr Gauke said the Worboys debacle “shone a light” on what is wrong with the parole system — and he aims to put it right.

He plans to overhaul the process by removing the shroud of secrecy around the parole board’s process.

A shake-up to be unveiled soon will make it easier to reconsider decisions and a new selection procedure will ensure panels include people who aren’t easily hoodwinked.

Mr Gauke said: “We’re looking at all the rules. We must be sure with a particularly sensitive case we have people on the panel who can be sufficiently probing and ask tough questions.

“It’s perfectly obvious the Worboys case was a sensitive one. There was considerable concern over his possible release.

“He is also a highly manipulative individual and in those circumstances you’d expect a panel to be very rigorous in its analysis of the evidence. But it was disappointing, to put it mildly.”

Parole Board chiefs want to keep the public barred from its hearings, its members to remain anonymous — and to avoid scrutiny of its rulings.