Joseph McCann: The moment serial rapist was arrested while hiding up a tree

6 December 2019, 13:19

This is the moment that serial rapist Joseph McCann was arrested while hiding in a tree.

McCann has been found guilty of a series of 37 charges, including rape, false imprisonment and kidnap. He attacked 11 women and children across the UK over the course of two weeks in April and May.

The 34-year-old refused to attend the trial at the Old Bailey.

He was arrested by officers in the early hours of Monday 6th May near Congleton in Cheshire.

Road blocks were quickly set up when an officer spotted McCann's car and one officer spotted a man matching his description in the back seat.

McCann managed to escape and sprinted through fields to try to lose police, but a helicopter located him just over an hour later, hiding up a tree.

After a five-hour stand-off with police negotiators, he eventually came down and was arrested by Cheshire officers at 02:36hrs.

The police described the rapist as "pure evil".

Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Goodwin, who led the investigation, said: “McCann is a depraved and extremely dangerous individual who subjected 11 innocent people to horrific sexual and physical assaults – the memory of which they will have to live with for the rest of their lives.

“One of the victims described looking into McCann’s eyes as he attacked her and seeing pure evil; anyone who sat through the trial and listened to the evidence can have no doubt she was right.

“This case is one of the most shocking I have ever worked on and is made all the worse by the fact McCann forced all of his victims to re-live their ordeal in court by failing to admit his guilt, despite the overwhelming evidence against him.

“His cowardice in refusing to come to court is in stark contrast to the bravery of those he kidnapped and assaulted and we must never forget their vital role in bringing him to justice.

“We know their lives can never be the same but we hope that today’s verdict and the custodial sentence McCann will receive can provide them with some form of closure. It also demonstrates the clear commitment of officers up and down the country to secure justice for all victims of sexual offences.