Alleged serial rapist Joseph McCann told police: ‘If you had caught me for the first two, the rest wouldn’t have happened’
Fugitive was arrested after attempting to escape police by climbing a tree
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An alleged serial rapist taunted police by telling them nine of his victims would have been spared if they had caught him earlier, a court has heard.
Joseph McCann is accused of offences against 11 victims aged between 11 and 71 in a fortnight-long rampage.
The Old Bailey heard that he was arrested after attempting to escape from police by climbing a tree in Cheshire on 6 May.
Prosecutor John Price QC said that Mr McCann refused to be interviewed after being transported to London but made a comment to an officer who accompanied him on the journey which “may be a little closer to the truth”.
The defendant allegedly told the officer: “If you had caught me for the first two, the rest of this wouldn’t have happened.”
Mr McCann, 34, denies all 37 charges against him.
A manhunt had been launched after two women who were kidnapped 12 hours apart in London on 25 April.
The victims, aged 21 and 25, were raped and forced to engage in sex acts with each other before they managed to escape in Watford.
But the defendant allegedly resumed his spree in northwest England 10 days later. In a 21-hour period on 5 May, he is accused of attacking three women, three young girls and a boy in the Manchester area.
Mr Price said Mr McCann conned his way into a mother’s home in Lancashire, tied her to a bed and raped her 17-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son.
Afterwards, he allegedly abducted a 71-year-old woman at a Morrison’s car park in Bury and raped her. The court heard that Mr McCann made off in the pensioner’s Fiat, which he used to snatch two 14-year-old girls in Congleton, Cheshire.
At 6.44pm that day, he was captured on CCTV buying condoms at a petrol station on the Clayton Bypass just a few miles away in the Greater Manchester area.
“By that time there was intense police activity in the area, bearing in mind the 999 calls that had been received during that day,” Mr Price said. “Reports of children being taken from the street, the police having the description of [the 71-year-old’s] car. They were looking for that car.”
Minutes later, a police officer spotted the Fiat at a nearby roundabout and started chasing it. The Fiat crashed into a Mercedes and the suspect fled on foot, leaving the two girls behind, jurors heard.
Mr Price said: “They were shocked, very frightened and distressed but otherwise mercifully unharmed.”
McCann ran past a man in his front garden who asked if he was alright. The defendant allegedly told the man to “shut the f*** up” before pedalling off on a mountain bike.
At about 8.15pm the defendant reportedly made two phone calls in a restaurant in Scholar Green, Cheshire.
He was overheard asking to speak to “Charlene” before ordering a taxi, jurors heard.
The bicycle was abandoned outside the restaurant as the defendant was picked up by the taxi, jurors were told.
Police had set up roadblocks and the vehicle was stopped on the A34 south of Congleton at 8.40pm.
An officer spoke to the passenger, who was holding a pint glass and claimed he was returning home after drinking in pubs, the court heard.
But when the officer asked to check the man’s stomach for a distinctive tattoo, the man refused and jumped out of the vehicle, running into a field while shouting: “F*** you”.
Mr Price said: “Police found him. He had climbed a tree. A stand-off commenced. He was eventually brought down and at 2.36am on Monday 6 May he was arrested for offences of rape and abduction.”
Mr McCann initially claimed the two girls in the car he had been driving had “wanted a lift”, and Mr Price said his defence lawyers may claim his alleged victims had consensual sex with him.
The court heard that his first victim – a 21-year-old woman kidnapped as she walked home from a Watford nightclub on 21 April – was told by her attacker that he had just got out of jail.
In a tearful videoed interview played in court, the woman said she was kidnapped while walking and using her phone.
“I felt the knife and he put his arm round me so I couldn’t move. The knife is at my neck,” she said. “He just kept calling me Hayley at first. Kept saying I’m a ‘stupid girl’. I think he slapped me in the face because I was crying.”
The woman said he drove around and told her she had to “join the firm”, before taking her back to her flat, where he allegedly raped her in bed.
Afterwards, the woman said she “just acted like it was OK”. She said: “He kept saying I was one of his 15 girlfriends and I would get on with his wife and kids. He was kind of scaring me saying he just got out of prison after doing 18 years.”
Mr McCann, of Harrow, denies 10 counts of false imprisonment, seven counts of rape, one count of rape of a child and two counts of causing or inciting a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.
He also denies seven counts of kidnap, one count of attempted kidnap, three counts of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, three counts of assault by penetration, one count of sexual assault and two counts of committing a sexual offence with intent.
The trial, which is due to go on for six weeks, continues.
Additional reporting by PA