RAPE SUSPECT IS QUIZZED OVER 9 ATTACKS IN 10HRS

Fugitive captured by cops after hiding out up a tree

A MAN suspected of carrying out a string of sex attacks in 10 hours on Sunday, including raping a woman of 71 and a boy of 11, was in custody last night.

Joseph McCann, 34, was captured at 3am yesterday after two teenage girls were abducted on Sunday evening in the Cheshire town of Congleton, but escaped.

Sunday’s attacks had begun at 8am when a woman in her 30s was falsely imprisoned in Haslingden, Lancs, and a teenage girl and boy, aged 11, were raped.

At 1.30pm, a woman of 71 was abducted and raped in Bury, Manchester. Two hours later, in Heywood, Manchester, two 13-year-old boys and a 13-year-old girl were abducted and the girl was sexually assaulted.

At 6.30pm, two girls of 14 were forced into a car in Congleton. They were not sexually assaulted.

It is thought one of the girls hit their abductor over the head with a bottle before they fled from the black Fiat Punto. It drove off but was spotted by police and chased.

After it hit a Mercedes A-class saloon, the driver fled on foot.

SIMON ROSE MET POLICE COMMANDER

LOCKED

Roads were closed and a police helicopter was brought in as residents were warned to stay inside and keep their doors locked.

The wanted man was found hiding in a tree on the outskirts of Congleton. g Negotiators were brought in, and he was taken into custody at around 3am.

Ann Marie Baylan, 53, was at home with her children during the police hunt. She said: “It was a bit scary, but we just locked the doors. We watched from the window.”

Andrew Kidd, 75, who has a farm in the area, said: “They found the man over the field where there is a ravine and a wooded area.”

McCann is also suspected of raping a 21-year-old woman at knifepoint in Watford on April 21.

On April 25, two women in their 20s were abducted and raped in a car in separate attacks in Chingford and Edgware, London. McCann is being quizzed about a total of 12 attacks.

Met Commander Simon Rose said: “We’re exceptionally relieved he’s in custody. These were a grotesque and appalling series of offences.”

The Ministry of Justice launched a review after it emerged McCann may have been wrongly released from prison without going before a parole board in February.

These were appalling and grotesque offence