Rape suspect taunted police over his capture, Old Bailey told
A SERIAL rape suspect accused of a string of sex crimes against women and children taunted police by claiming he could have been caught sooner, a court has heard.
Joseph Mccann told officers that several of his victims would have been spared had he been arrested after his “first two”, jurors at the Old Bailey were told.
Instead Mr Mccann, 34, allegedly went on a two-week rampage across the country in April and May. He faces multiple charges of rape, kidnap and false imprisonment.
Jurors were yesterday shown a tearful police interview with Mr Mccann’s first alleged victim, a 21-year-old mother who said she was kidnapped and raped at knifepoint by a man with a “traveller accent” as she walked home from a Watford nightclub. Other alleged victims included two children who were raped while their mother was tied up in the next room. Seven women and girls were snatched off the street, it is said, including a pensioner.
Jurors heard today how Mr Mccann was arrested after a “stand-off” with police in Congleton, Cheshire on May 5.
John Price QC, prosecuting, said: “Though he refused to be interviewed after he arrived in London, Mccann did say something of relevance to an officer involved in accompanying him on that journey. He told DC Foxwell, ‘If you had caught me for the first two, the rest of this wouldn’t have happened.’”
After attacking three victims in Watford and North London, Mr Mccann is said to have waited 10 days before carrying on his spree in the north-west.
Jurors were shown CCTV footage showing a 17-year-old girl jumping naked from her first-floor window at her home in the Manchester area, fracturing her heel. By that time she had already been raped by Mr Mccann along with her 11-year-old brother while their mother was tied to a bed in the next room, the court heard.
Part of the teenager’s 999 call was played to the court. Sobbing, the girl told the operator: “He’s been keeping us hostage.”
Later that afternoon amid “intense police activity”, he was allegedly spotted driving a black Fiat Punto belonging to a 71-year-old woman he had seized from a supermarket car park. Two 14-year-old girls snatched moments before were inside the car.
Mr Mccann, from Harrow, northwest London, denies 37 charges relating to 11 alleged victims aged between 11 and 71. The trial continues.