Britain’s most dangerous rapist Joseph McCann is guilty of a string of rapes 

Joseph McCann has been convicted of a horrific campaign of kidnappings, rapes and sex attacks

Serial rapist Joseph McCann has been found guilty of a two-week rampage of rape, kidnapping and carnage after he was twice released from jail by blundering officials.

Joseph McCann, who was convicted at the Old Bailey today following a harrowing trial, was mistakenly released half-way through a three-year sentence earlier this year without going in front of a parole board.

Just weeks later, he embarked upon a horrific campaign of abducting children and women from streets before raping and abusing them in the most sickening ways.

He drove around the country taking ever increasing amounts of cocaine and alcohol until he was caught up a tree after a police car chase interrupted his attempt to rape two 14-year-olds. 

McCann, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, was today convicted of eight rapes, seven kidnaps, 10 counts of false imprisonment, six sexual assaults and three counts of inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.  

Judge Mr Justice Edis told the court he was considering a discretionary life sentence when McCann is sentenced on Monday.

Footage released by police shows McCann's arrest after he hid up a tree after going on the run

Footage released by police shows McCann’s arrest after he hid up a tree after going on the run

A map shows the trail of misery McCann wrought across the country over two weeks

A map shows the trail of misery McCann wrought across the country over two weeks

After the verdicts, Scotland Yard’s Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Goodwin said his crimes were the worst sexual offences her team had ever seen. 

DCI Goodwin described McCann as ‘evil’ ‘manipulative’ and ‘cunning’. She added: ‘He clearly is a horrendously dangerous individual. Each person feared for their lives while they were held against their will. ‘

McCann was originally given an indeterminate sentence back in 2008 following a terrifying raid on a 85-year-old pensioner’s home. That meant he was only allowed out if the Parole Board deemed him to no longer a danger to the public.

They did so in 2017, but McCann soon after committed another burglary and was sent back to prison.

This time however, officials wrongly categorised him and mistakenly granted him automatic release after just 18 months. Weeks later he started abducting and raping victims at random. 

How McCann was twice released from prison despite a judge finding he was ‘dangerous’ 

2008 – Joseph McCann threatened to stab an 85-year-old man in his home. He told the elderly man ‘give me money or I will knife you’ before taking his wallet and banking papers. He was jailed for an indeterminate term and told he cannot apply for parole for two and a half years.

Early 2017 – McCann is released on licence by the parole board.

Late 2017 – While on licence, he commits a burglary and is returned to prison on a three-year sentence.

February 2019 – McCann is wrongly released without having gone before the parole board but was instead released automatically half way through his three-year jail term.

April and May 2019 – McCann goes on two-week rampage of rape, sexual assault and kidnap.

McCann’s first victim was a 21-year-old woman he abducted at knifepoint as she walked home from Pryzm nightclub in Watford in the early hours of April 21. He threatened to stab her if she did not stop crying. 

After checking the address on her provisional driving licence, he drove to her house where he raped her, the court heard.

He then targeted a 21-year-old woman as she walked home with her 18-year-old sister in Edgware, north London, on April 25. 

Footage taken yards from their front door showed a silver Ford SMax pull up beside the women, before a man in a grey tracksuit leapt out and grabbed one of them.

He dragged her into the vehicle and drove off as her younger sister ran home to tell her mother what had happened.

Jurors were played a recording of the mother’s 999 call in which she pleads with police to find her daughter. ‘

‘A man grabbed my 21-year-old about five minutes ago,’ she says, as her younger daughter is heard wailing in the background. 

‘He tried to grab both of them but got hold of one of my daughters and the other ran away.’ 

There was already another woman, aged 25, in the car. She had been abducted in the early hours of that morning as she walked home in Walthamstow, east London.

John Price QC, prosecuting, said the 25-year-old woman had been raped ‘many times’ and subjected to acts of ‘shocking depravity and violence’. 

Separate CCTV shows him at a McDonald's drive through with two victims still in his car

Separate CCTV shows him at a McDonald’s drive through with two victims still in his car

She had also been made to perform sexual acts on McCann, who threatened to throw her into a canal to destroy DNA evidence.

‘He made her call him ‘Daddy’ and say that she was a child,’ said Mr Price. ‘At one point the man parked the car near to a school, saying that he wanted to make her rape a child. He raped [the woman] at that location.’ 

Mr Price said the 21-year-old snatched from the street was also raped and made to perform ‘depraved’ sexual acts.

The pair eventually escaped after the 25-year-old smashed a vodka bottle over McCann’s head, giving them time to run to a group of nearby builders in Watford.

McCann then went on the rampage in the North-West, picking up a mother in a bar in Lancashire before tying her up and raping her 17-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son in their home. 

He then abducted his eldest victim, a 71-year-old woman, from a nearby Morrisons supermarket car park.

McCann let himself into the passenger door of her Fiat Punto as she began driving out of the car park, then punched her hard in the face, the Old Bailey was told.

McCann was caught on CCTV buying petrol and condoms at a Shell garage with two 14-year-old girls abducted in a Fiat car

McCann was caught on CCTV buying petrol and condoms at a Shell garage with two 14-year-old girls abducted in a Fiat car

He is said to have sexually assaulted her and then ordered her to drive him to Heywood, where he forced a 13-year-old girl to get into the car before sexually assaulted her too.  They were able to escape at Knutsford service station on the M6.

McCann is alleged to have fled in the car, and little more than half an hour later used it to abduct two 14-year-old girls in Congleton, Cheshire. A friend rang police from a nearby shop.

Hundreds of officers from forces across the country were involved in the manhunt once McCann had been identified as the rape suspect.

During his remand court appearances McCann refused to take part in the proceedings with a magistrate having to go to his cell.

He refused to attend the Old Bailey trial leaving police involved rolling their eyes in disbelief when his QC produced a list of excuses.

McCann claimed he was suffering sleepless nights and had back problems. He also claimed prison officers were picking on him and complained about the food at Belmarsh Prison.

Unusually for such a high profile case the jurors never saw him during the three week trial and he was not in the dock when they found him guilty after five hours of deliberation.

One officer in the case said: ‘ This just showed what a coward McCann is. He subjected these girls, women and a boy to the most horrific abuse, yet did not have the guts to face them in court.’

McCann’s QC Jo Sidu offered no defence other than to claim the sexual assaults and rape were all consensual. 

 

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