‘SERIAL RAPIST’S NINE ATTACKS IN 11 HOURS’
Fugitive found hiding in tree accused of assaults on victims aged 11 to 71
A FUGITIVE is suspected of a string of ‘grotesque’ sex attacks in a horrifying 11-hour rampage on the run, it emerged yesterday.
Joseph McCann is said to have claimed nine victims including a boy of 11 and a pensioner.
Following a huge manhunt, the 34-yearold was finally found hiding up a tree just outside the Cheshire market town of Congleton in the early hours of yesterday.
Police had put the area under lockdown on Sunday after reports that a man fitting his description had snatched two schoolgirls. But the investigation escalated dramatically when it later emerged that they were just two of a string of brutal sexual attacks across a 40-mile swathe of the North that day.
And police fear there may be even more victims who haven’t yet come forward. Convicted burglar McCann was on the streets following a shocking parole blunder. He was automatically released from jail in February without being assessed by a Parole Board.
While out, he was linked to the kidnap and rape of three women in and around London last month, leading to Scotland Yard announcing a £20,000 reward for inforraping mation leading to his capture.
Detectives say McCann’s most recent attack started at about 8am on Sunday when a woman in her thirties was abducted and a teenage girl and a boy aged 11 were both raped in Haslingden, Lancashire.
A little over five hours later, he is accused of abducting and a 71-year- old woman eight miles away in Bury, Greater Manchester.
Then at about 3.30pm in nearby Heywood, McCann is believed to have kidnapped two boys and a girl – all aged 13 – and sexually assaulted the girl.
Finally at about 6.30pm a man fitting his description bundled two 14-year- old girls into a Fiat Punto an hour’s drive away in Congleton.
In a high- speed chase with police, he smashed into a passing Mercedes and dumped the Punto in a cul- de- sac, where the girls were able to escape unharmed.
The muscular, tattooed convicted burglar fled on foot.
‘Lock your doors and stay inside’
Police said yesterday both girls were left ‘extremely distressed’ by the ordeal. A woman had to be cut out of the silver Mercedes after it was hit by McCann’s Fiat, residents said.
Homeowners in Congleton – which bills itself as the gateway to Cheshire’s Peak District – were urged to stay indoors and police manned roadblocks as rumours swept social media of a dangerous suspect armed with a machete.
Officers, including armed police and a hazardous area response team, finally located McCann at 11pm up a tree at a wooded spot two miles outside the town. Following talks with negotiators he was arrested and driven away in a 4x4 at about 3am, with his face hidden by a hood.
He is to be handed to Scotland Yard officers for questioning over a total of 12 attacks – nine of them in the space of just under 11 hours on Sunday.
Yesterday residents told of their terror as the huge police investigation unfolded.
‘I was just settling down to watch Line of Duty when a
policeman came banging at my door,’ said one elderly resident.
‘He told me to stay inside as there was a man... on the loose. He said he was armed and very dangerous.’ Farmer Andrew Kidd, 75, said: ‘They told me there is a very violent person about who has absconded and he’s very dangerous so go inside, lock your doors and don’t come out,’ he said.
The Ministry of Justice launched an urgent review after it emerged McCann had been wrongly released from prison in February.
McCann was subject to a lifelong licence after he was released from prison in 2017 having served ten years of an indeterminate sentence for public protection for aggravated burglary.
Recalled to jail for another burglary and theft, he was freed automatically halfway through a three-year sentence without going before a Parole Board first. He is thought to be behind three attacks last month.
A woman was raped on April 21 after being forced into a blue Ford Mondeo at knifepoint in Watford and driven around for six hours. Four days later another woman was abducted in Chingford, north- east London, at about 12.30am.
A second was snatched in Edgware, north London, about 12 hours later. Both were raped. Last night Metropolitan Police Commander Simon Rose said the country is safer after McCann’s arrest.
He said it was ‘impossible’ to know if there are further victims. ‘These were a grotesque and appalling series of offences that are thankfully exceptionally rare so it’s extremely important that he is in custody and that England is a safer place,’ he added.