Chilling failures of justice that freed this man to rape AGAIN.. . just hours before his own wedding
LIPS locked together, Derry McCann celebrates his marriage with a kiss for his heavily pregnant new wife.
Earlier in the day the 28-year-old had exchanged vows with partner Kerry Hogg at a register office in Bow, East London.
There, they again posed for the camera — she dressed in white, he suited and booted, their wedding rings displayed on a velvet cushion in front of them.
Rewind a few more hours and there is another photo of McCann, in a pub, pint on the table, arms wrapped around his mates, grinning and giving the thumbs up. In other words, a pretty standard British wedding — a few beers the night before, then off to tie the knot.
But the world now knows that there is nothing remotely normal about McCann or this wedding day.
Because in between leaving the pub and getting married, he perpetrated the most brutal of crimes — the multiple rape of a 24-year-old woman.
McCann targeted the university graduate as she walked back from an art show, dragging her into Victoria park and subjecting her to a two-hour attack. He then went home.
The next morning, as he dressed for his wedding, police were already searching for the woman’s assailant.
They issued a description — white male, London accent, wearing a grey hooded top with a black body warmer, blue jeans and grey trainers. In other words, the clothes captured in that picture from the pub.
That McCann could commit such a crime, then go on to his own wedding is shocking enough. But what is more shocking still is that he was free to carry out that barbaric attack in the first place.
Because in 2006, McCann, then 17, was convicted of another rape. The circumstances of that attack were almost identical to the one in January — in how it was carried out and the violence inflicted on the victim.
So horrified was the trial judge, Judge Lindsay Burn, at the time that he jailed McCann for life.
He went further, stating that the governor of the prison McCann was sent to should be informed of the severe threat he posed.
But rather than heed his warnings, in 2008, McCann was granted legal aid to challenge his sentence. He succeeded, arguing it should be cut because he was ‘young’ when he committed the crime.
In 2015 he was released, having persuaded a parole board that he was no longer a risk to the public. How wrong they were.
Because what happened next means that a second woman has now also suffered terribly because of McCann. Nothing can change that.
Not the belated expressions of sympathy from the parole board, nor the promise from the judge in this case that when McCann is sentenced next month, he will face a lengthy prison term.
Because as the detective who brought McCann to book the first time observes, can anyone feel confident it will really happen this time?
‘I think the original sentence was correct but obviously “life” rarely means “life” in the penal system,’ said Detective Sergeant Paul Lofts, who has now retired from the Met.
‘McCann never showed the slightest remorse for his victim, nor did he show any sense of guilt or admit any wrongdoing even after he had been found guilty.
‘While I did not expect McCann to spend the rest of his life in jail, I would have liked him to do at least 20 years before parole was considered.
McCann grew up in the East End of London, in the area around Victoria Park. His father, Eamonn, lived nearby as a young man. Similarities between father and son do not end there.
In 1968, aged 17, Mr McCann Snr was involved in a violent incident after he and a friend went to Dagenham to meet two girls in a park.
According to newspaper reports, an argument broke out, and McCann Snr, a labourer, fatally stabbed his 18-year-old friend in the head.
He was tried at the Old Bailey, where a jury cleared him of murder but convicted him of manslaughter. He was jailed for four years. FOLLOWINg
his release, he married for the first time, divorced and then married McCann’s mother. The pair had four sons, of whom Derry was the youngest, and he was in trouble with the police from a young age.
Legal sources told the Daily Mail that, aged 14, McCann was charged with robbing and indecently assaulting a younger boy in Victoria Park.
The case was heard in a Crown Court trial presided over by Judge Burn — the judge who would try him, years later. McCann was cleared, but the alleged offence was a glimpse of things to come.
Three years later, in May 2006, McCann, then 17, pounced on a 30-year-old woman as she walked in nearby Mile End Park.
Her testimony is harrowing but it bears telling at length, to understand why McCann was deemed such a threat, and why his early release is harder to understand.
His victim, who cannot be named, was walking through the park at 7am when she saw McCann and a friend of his coming towards her. She said: ‘I thought: “Oh god, this is not good,” and started running. They were in my face, saying: “give us your money.” They took my bag.’
McCann, who was wearing an electronic tag having been convicted of an earlier burglary, told his accomplice to leave them, saying: ‘ I’m gonna have some fun with this one.’
His victim said: ‘I started pleading with this guy, he had his arms round me. I was wriggling, trying to get away, but he was a lot stronger than me. He was on top of me.
‘ He was holding my neck. He gestured to his backpack and asked me: “Have you ever been knifed in the neck? You’re going to be knifed in the neck if you don’t shut up.” ’
The victim said he pulled her screaming towards the pond near tall weeds and began undressing her.
‘I remember seeing on Crimewatch, if someone’s being violently attacked it’s better to kind of co-operate and be a bit passive,’ she said.
‘I couldn’t beat him off, so didn’t have a choice.
‘I decided to stop screaming so much. He leaned towards me. He tried to kiss me, and I remember him looking at me. He was disgusting. Then he bit my cheek.’
McCann then inflicted a series of sexual assaults on the woman before taunting her. SHE
said: ‘He told me: “You’re gorgeous, I’m not letting you go, you’re my girlfriend now. I’m going to chain you up in my house, and you’re going to be my girlfriend — there’s already another girl there waiting.’
The sex attack continued as he told her: ‘Make noises like you’re enjoying it.’ He then lay beside her and stroked her hair before saying he wanted her to have his baby.
Then he challenged her to say what he’d done. When she replied: ‘You’ve raped me,’ he asked what she was going to do about it.
She replied: ‘I’m going to go home and I’m going to cry and forget it ever happened.’
McCann suddenly announced: ‘I’m going to let you go,’ and walked off. Soon after, the woman contacted police, telling them: ‘I don’t want him to get anyone else.’
Linked to the scene by DNA, McCann tried to claim the sex had been consensual.
A jury did not believe him, convicting him of one count of robbery, two of sexual assault, one of assault by penetration, one of causing a person to engage in sexual activity, six counts of rape and one of attempted rape.
McCann was unrepentant to the last, unleashing a foul- mouthed tirade as he was sentenced to life with a recommendation he serve at least nine years.
Judge Lindsay Burn expressed deep concern over his ‘ clinical enactment of a catalogue of sexual desires’ which, he concluded, amounted to ‘torture’.
The judge said: ‘Some of the most bizarre and worrying features of the evidence was your repeated threats to kill the complainant and your change of mood. On one hand you were a sexual aggressor, then you almost completely switched to the role of boyfriend, talking to her in a normal way.’
He said McCann had shown no remorse for the ‘devastating’ impact on his victim. In an unusual step, he ordered a transcript of his sentencing remarks to be sent to the governor of the prison.
‘I am seriously concerned you will remain highly dangerous, in particular to women, for an unforeseeable period,’ he said.
‘In my judgment there’s a very substantial risk you will commit further serious offences in the future
and your conduct will cause serious harm to your victim or victims.’
McCann also attacked the security screen of the dock. His family were escorted out by 12 officers after shouting at the judge for jailing their ‘innocent’ son.
Less than two years later, in 2008, McCann successfully appealed against his life sentence, and was given what is known as a ‘detention for public protection’ with a maximum of 15 years, with parole to be considered in half that time.
Three appeal court judges decided it was unnecessary to impose a life sentence on ‘such a young offender’. It meant McCann was eligible for parole in 2013, after which he was moved to an open prison.
He went back before another parole board in 2015 and was released on licence. After he was freed, his girlfriend Kerry Hogg fell pregnant. It’s unclear when, and how, they got together.
She is a cousin of the Spurs and England footballer Harry Kane — her father and his mother are brother and sister.
McCann and Kerry married on January 13 this year at The Vestry in Bromley-by-Bow. Five days later, he was arrested.
He pleaded guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court last week to robbery and three counts of rape.
The court heard he pounced on his victim as she walked in Victoria Park and subjected her to a twohour ordeal — chillingly similar to the attack years earlier. Again he toyed with her before the assault.
‘ He asked the victim what she thought he was going to do to her before carrying out the actual attacks,’ said Kate Bex, prosecuting.
McCann also stole her phone and bra and took pictures of her, gloating: ‘You’re lucky I didn’t video it.’ He will be sentenced on April 28.
His new wife was not in court to see her husband admit rape. She has since given birth to his son and could not be contacted.
HErfather would only say to the Mail: ‘ My daughter has been through hell over all this. She had no idea what was going on.’
Judge Burn retired in 2014 but sources told the Mail the McCann case strongly affected him. ‘ The victim’s life was completely ruined,’ said one. ‘It was one of several cases that really upset him.’
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Parole Board said: ‘ The Board is deeply concerned to learn of the circumstances which led to the further serious offence that Derry McCann has now been convicted of, and we can only imagine the trauma and pain this has caused the victim.
‘In cases such as this one, the Parole Board is committed to doing everything it can to learn the lessons that will help to prevent such terrible events happening in the future.’
As for the police, the Met’s Det Insp Lee Davison praised the victim: ‘ No one should have to endure what she was forced to go through and I want to formally pay tribute to her courage and determination.
‘It is through her bravery we have been able to bring McCann to justice.’
For the last time, one can only hope.