Joseph McCann (born 8 February 1985) is an English serial rapist. In April and May 2019, McCann committed sexual attacks in Hertfordshire, London, Greater Manchester and Cheshire against 11 strangers, ranging in age from an 11-year-old boy to a 71-year-old woman. He evaded police, who suspect that he was sheltered by a "support network" across the country. For these crimes, he was tried at the Old Bailey and in December, he was convicted of 37 offences and given 33 life sentences. McCann had previously been noted as a habitual offender, having been one of the first recipients of an anti-social behaviour order at age 14.
Early life Joseph McCann was born on 8 February 1985"Multiple rapist jailed for minimum of 30 years", Metropolitan Police Service, 9 December 2019. Archived from the original on 9 January 2020. in North London, to a Scottish builder and a mother with "links" to the Irish traveller community;Bill Gardner, "'Britain's worst sex offender': How Joseph McCann went from Asbo child criminal to serial rapist", The Daily Telegraph, 6 December 2019. he was reported as being "one generation removed" from travellers and part of a "large travelling family"."Named tearaway detained after threats", Manchester Evening News, 2 August 2000, p. 2. By the mid-1990s, the McCanns had moved to a council house on Tyrol Walk in Beswick, a district of Manchester.Paul Britton, "A monster from the 'Asbo capital of Britain'... how one Manchester estate lived in fear of the McCann brothers, but fought back", Manchester Evening News, 10 December 2019. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
Criminal history before April 2019 Beginning around 1996, McCann and his brothers "ran a campaign of intimidation and crime" in their neighbourhood.Helen Carter, "From baby-faced Asbo thug to serial rapist – how evil Joseph McCann terrorised a Manchester community", Manchester Evening News, 9 December 2019. Retrieved 8 March 2020. McCann first came into contact with the police at the age of 11. His first conviction was for theft, when he was aged 13, and others followed for criminal damage, possession of a knife and handling stolen goods. Other incidents reported by the press included stealing and setting fire to vehicles, carrying out muggings,"Joseph McCann: Brothers were all given an Asbo", The Times, 7 December 2019. Retrieved 8 March 2020. threatening elderly neighbours and intimidating young children attending a homework club."Residents breathe a huge sigh of relief", Manchester Evening News, 18 May 2000, p. 3. Following complaints from neighbours, the council filmed the brothers vandalising property, damaging cars and throwing bricks at people. With neighbours and the council gathering evidence against the boys, in 1998 the council evicted the family from their home.
1999 anti-social behaviour order The McCanns moved to Ardwick, also in Manchester, but the boys often returned to their old estate and continued what the Manchester Evening Post called a "campaign of terror".Peter Slingsby, "'They are out of control and public must be protected'", Manchester Evening News, 18 May 2000, p. 3. A local police officer told The Guardian that "there was a perception that they [the McCanns] were untouchable. The three boys caused an enormous amount of problems for local people and committed a range of anti-social behaviour".Helen Carter and John James, "Signs of the times", The Guardian, 2 May 2001. Retrieved 8 March 2020. The police continued to gather evidence from neighbours and, in 1999, McCann and his brothers were subject to one of the United Kingdom's first anti-social behaviour orders (ASBO). They were banned from "entering the Beswick area [,] ... using or engaging in any abusive, insulting, offensive, threatening or intimidating language or behaviour in the City of Manchester [,] ... threatening or engaging in violence or damage against people or property in the City ... and encouraging others [to do the same]".Stuart Macdonald, "The Nature of the Anti-Social Behaviour Order – R (McCann & Others) v Crown Court at Manchester", The Modern Law Review, vol 66, no. 4 (2003), pp. 630–631. The boys were photographed smirking and swearing at journalists after leaving court. Residents of Beswick were said to have been "relieved" by the order; the police reported that crime fell by a third, the burglary rate halved and one supermarket claimed that its revenue rose by £14,000 a week after the ASBO had been imposed.
The brothers appealed against the order, firstly to the Crown Court and then to the High Court. Both failed and they took it to the Court of Appeal in 2001,"'Tearaway' brothers appeal over ban", BBC News Online, 26 February 2001. Retrieved 8 March 2020. which also rejected the appeal. In 2002, the House of Lords heard the case, which rested on whether an ASBO constituted civil or criminal proceedings under article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This distinction mattered because hearsay was inadmissible in criminal proceedings; ASBOs had been established to be civil injunctions with criminal penalties, which (as civil proceedings) allowed the hearsay of intimidated people to be admissible rather than demand that they appear as witnesses. If the House of Lords had ruled them to be criminal proceedings, then the ASBO would be "unworkable". In R (McCann & others) v Crown Court at Manchester and another ( UKHL 39), it was ruled that the proceedings were civil and the McCanns' case was therefore dismissed. Because of its wider implications, the ruling was discussed in academic literature.Bernadette McSherry, Managing Fear: The Law and Ethics of Preventative Detention and Risk Assessment, International Perspectives on Forensic Mental Health (New York: Routledge, 2014), pp. 148–168.
2008 indefinite sentence After the 1999 ASBO, the McCann family moved away from Manchester. As The Daily Telegraph remarked, the ASBO came as a relief to residents of Beswick but "failed to solve the problem" of the McCanns' offending. The family settled in the south of England, in Aylesbury and Harrow, where the brothers continued to commit crimes, including car theft and damage to property. By 2007, McCann was living in Bedford. He had fathered a young child was not present at the birth because he was in prison. On 27 December, he burgled the house of an elderly man in Cotton End; McCann threatened to stab the man and stole a purse. After McCann was recognised on CCTV, he was arrested, eventually pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and was sentenced in September 2008 to an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) order with a minimum term of two years and six months in prison. His partner was heavily pregnant with their second child at the time of his sentencing."Burglar must serve at least 30 months", Bedfordshire on Sunday, 30 September 2008. McCann's IPP was a form of indefinite sentence which meant that his release would only occur after the minimum term and once the Parole Board for England and Wales became satisfied that he would no longer pose a risk to the public; if he were released, it would be on a ten-year licence and if he were convicted of further offences during that period, he would be recalled to prison on his IPP sentence.Jamie Grierson, "The Joseph McCann case: the error and its implications", The Guardian, 6 December 2019. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
While serving his sentence, McCann was assessed by his offender manager as "posing a high risk of serious harm to the public and known adults", as well as a "medium risk" to children, prison staff and prisoners.Probation Serious Further Offence Review in the case of Joseph McCann (Ministry of Justice, 5 March 2020), pp. 1–4. In 2009, prison staff intercepted letters suggesting that he "posed a risk of sexual harm". Two years later, police alerted his offender managers to intelligence from 2003 indicating that he "might pose a risk of sexual harm and exploitation to teenage girls". McCann remained in prison for over eight years; the Parole Board rejected his applications for parole in 2010, 2012 and 2014.Danny Shaw, "Joseph McCann: The failures that let violent criminal back on the streets", BBC News Online, 6 December 2019. Retrieved 8 March 2020. He carried out rehabilitation courses and risk-reduction courses and was finally released on licence in March 2017. While McCann served his sentence, his brother Sean killed himself while serving a two-year sentence for assault and other offences at HMP Peterborough.Sean McCann's death triggered an investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman in 2017 and an inquest in 2019. A "very challenging" prisoner, he had a history of mental health problems, self-harm and drug abuse. After his transferal to HMP Peterborough in January 2016, staff suspected him of bullying prisoners and dealing and abusing drugs. In late February, he self-harmed and attempted suicide twice. After he assaulted several prisoners, he was removed to a segregation unit, where he damaged his cell, chewed a razor blade and made a ligature, both of which staff removed. After returning to a normal wing several days later, he was re-segregated after threatening staff and prisoners; he tied a ligature around his neck again but was deemed too volatile to attend an inpatient unit; the following day, he hanged himself from a broken light fitting. The Ombudsman concluded that the prison did not "manage Mr McCann's risk of suicide or self-harm effectively" or produce strategies for dealing with his drug abuse and dealing. See: Nigel Newcomen, Independent investigation into the death of Mr Sean McCann a prisoner at HMP Peterborough on 13 March 2016 (Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, 2017). The inquest into his death was critical of staff for not moving him from his segregation cell after they noticed that the broken light formed a "ligature point" (Neil Shefferd, "Family of Aylesbury dad who died in his cell say they hope prison will learn from their mistakes", Bucks Herald, 19 February 2019).
2017 release and re-sentencing On his release from prison, McCann was assigned to spend twelve weeks at an Approved Premises in East Anglia. At the end of that period, he went to live with family in Buckinghamshire which was approved as a temporary arrangement. However, in late July and early August 2017 he visited Manchester and began moving between other family addresses in Hertfordshire; as a result of this, his offender manager was unable to make contact with him.
On 18 August 2017, he was arrested for car theft and burglary and was subsequently remanded in custody. In January 2018, he was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for burglary and motor vehicle theft. In sentencing him, the judge remarked that this would run concurrently with his IPP sentence, but his offender management team did not recall him on that sentence; had they done so, he would have had to appear before a parole board before being considered for release. Instead, his sentence was treated as a determinate one which meant that he would be released halfway through on licence.
2019 release on licence In late 2018 and early January 2019, staff at McCann's prison contacted the probation service, who were concerned that McCann had not been recalled on his IPP sentence. The senior probation officer reiterated that his predecessor, who had been responsible for the case at the time of McCann's sentencing, had made the decision not to recall him. The Assistant Chief Officer who headed the probation service in Hertfordshire affirmed the decision in January 2019, out of concern that there was a risk McCann could challenge his recall at that late stage. Soon after, he was released on licence and prohibited from pursuing relationships with women. His offender manager was unable to find him a room at Approved Premises, so he was permitted to return to his family address in Buckinghamshire. At the time of his subsequent offences in April, he was living in Aylesbury.