Two women who were seriously sexually assaulted by London cabbie John Worboys have won a victory at the High Court in their bid to get compensation from the Metropolitan Police.

One of the women, identified only as DSD, was the first of Worboys' victims to make a complaint to the Met in 2003 - although a woman went to the City of London police the previous year - while the other, NBV, contacted them after she was attacked in July 2007.

In the intervening four years, Worboys, who was jailed for life in 2009, attacked 74 other women, Phillippa Kaufmann QC told the High Court in London in November.

He is believed to be Britain’s most prolific sex offender, with victims in Dorset and London. Although he was jailed for offences committed in London’s West End, police always believed he had more victims and he was known to have worked as a cabbie in Bournemouth town centre while living in a holiday flat in Poole.

DSD and NBV both wanted declarations the Met had acted incompatibly with their rights under Articles 3 and 8 of the Human Rights Act - which relate to inhuman treatment and right to privacy - and damages.

DSD alleges she suffered a depressive disorder as a result of her treatment by officers during the 2003 investigation.

Ms Kaufmann said: "She suffered great anxiety and distress believing that those around her believed she had lied about the incident. She questioned her sanity.

"In 2008 she suffered an adjustment disorder triggered in large part by the sense of guilt which overwhelmed her when she realised how many other women John Worboys had gone on to attack."

NBV claims she suffered serious distress, anxiety, guilt and an exacerbation of post traumatic disorder and depression as a result of her treatment by officers during 2007.

After the attack on NBV, Worboys was arrested but released and went on to attack a further 29 women before being re-arrested in February 2008 and prosecuted.

Ms Kaufmann told Mr Justice Green that there were five further complaints to the Met between the attacks on DSD and NBV and another three after the attack on NBV as well as an allegation of kerb crawling in 2006 which the police had linked to Worboys.

In total, it was believed that Worboys had committed about 105 offences over the period between 2002 and 2008.