'God has forgiven me!', the serial rapist John Worboys claims. That is according to the Star on Sunday's front page which, it has to be said, is not generally known for religious affairs exclusives.

But, as was pointed out on Sunday, this is not as unlikely a story as it might seem.

Through an interwoven network of chaplains, inter-faith groups, prayer initiatives and evangelistic efforts, churches have boasted a steady drip feed of stories claiming that hardened inmates are experiencing radical conversions.

Shane Taylor, once considered one of the most dangerous prisoners in Britain, is one of hundreds to have dramatically converted while in prison. He described praying while at the maximum security HMP Long Lartin, Worcestershire: 'Suddenly a bubbly energy seemed to start within me. It rose up from deep within my belly, moved up my body and through my chest. My emotions opened up and I found myself crying,' he said.

'As I cried I felt as though tons of invisible bricks were falling away from me and I was shedding the weight of them, leaving me feeling lighter and more able to see things clearly. At that moment I knew God had touched me, he'd heard my prayers and with sure certainty he was real.

'All the hate, anger and resentment seeped away as I cried, leaving me feeling lifted.'

While stories like Taylor's are rare, religion's presence in UK prisons is not new. In fact each prison is required by law to have a chaplain and prison chaplains are the only clergy to have statutory duties they must carry out. Under the 1952 Prisons Act prison chaplains must visit new prisoners within 24 hours of their arrival, they must visit all prisoners under segregation or in the prison hospital and they must take religious services.

Their role is pastoral, not proselytising. 'The chaplains of today are not here to judge or convert anyone, or anything like that, they are just here to talk to and give prisoners support,' one prison governor told a study on prison chaplaincy by Cardiff University.

However the makeup of prison chaplains has changed drastically in more than six decades since the legislation was passed. Whereas the Act assumes chaplains are male, Christian and more specifically Anglican, now both male and female chaplains cover a whole range of faiths with 15 per cent of the prison population now Muslim, two per cent Buddhist and one per cent Sikh.

But despite the changes in wider society and the decline in organised religion from 1952, the Church of England retains its established presence in prisons: the 'chief chaplain' to the prison service, the Chaplain-General, is still traditionally an Anglican; one of the 26 bishops who sit in the House of Lords is given the title of Bishop for Prisons; and the majority of chaplains employed by the government are still Anglicans.

Aside than the formal, statutory, links between the Church and Her Majesty's Prisons, there is a more informal network of religious charities who work in prisons.

Unlike prison chaplains, these are not merely pastoral and have freedom to run evangelistic courses.

One such group is the Prison Fellowship, an initiative founded in the US and now running in the UK, which writes letters to prisoners, buys presents for inmates to give to their children at Christmas and works with victims of crimes to help their perpetrates see the impact on people's lives.

But perhaps the most prominent is Alpha; an eight-week evangelistic course to emerge from the charismatic Anglican church in Kensington, Holy Trinity Brompton. Boasting alumni including Bear Grylls, Geri Halliwell and the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Alpha is based on a series of short talks followed by a discussion group. It is designed to give a whistle-stop tour through the Christian faith and more than 24 million people in over 100 countries across 112 languages have taken the course.

Alpha was registered in 64 prisons in the UK at the end of 2016 and runs in more than 800 prisons, in 55 countries, around the world. In the UK 2,560 people, including volunteers, are estimated to have taken part in Alpha in prisons in 2016 and 67 per cent said they 'experienced personal transformation'.

Steve Page, development manager for Alpha UK in prisons, told Christian Today Alpha offers a place to discuss. 

'It is voluntary. They can disagree. They can ask questions. If they think Jesus is an alien from another time and space they can think that. We are not there to correct their theology.'

Evangelistic courses for offenders such as Worboys may jar as either preying on the vulnerable or offering the depraved an excuse to pretend they have changed.

But Page said it was neither. 'They don't have to go. It is optional and quite often it's run at the same time when they can have their one shower a week and many of these guys chose to go to Alpha,' he told Christian Today.

'We find Alpha in whatever context is held when people have questions about life. These people have got a lot of time to be thinking about these questions.

'It is there to be the place where they can ask those questions and we are there to wade through them with them.'

Shane Taylor's dramatic conversion followed an Alpha course. He was released a year later, six-and-a-half years through his eight year, nine month sentence and is now a regular ambassador for the course. Page said the main reason Alpha is allowed is because it reduces re-offending.

'We're hoping they don't come back,' he said. 'We hope that there is spiritual awakening so they don't re-offend.'

There's no suggestion Worboys took part in an Alpha course. But there are plenty of other opportunities for a prisoner to find faith if they are seeking it. Whether his alleged conversion is genuine is another question – and whether his conversion should have any influence on whether he's released is another question still. Christianity should not act as a get-out-of-jail-free card and the law must still take its course.