GUILTY UK - Joe McCann, multiple victims kidnapped & assaulted, April / May 2019

[Legally Bland]

Mr Price said that by then police had a name and description of the suspect and knew he had a distinctive tattoo on his stomach.

PC David Reed spoke to the taxi passenger, who was holding a pint glass and claimed he was returning home after drinking in pubs, the court heard.

When the officer asked to see his stomach, the passenger replied: "No, you're not f****** seeing" before jumping out of the taxi and running into fields saying: "f*** you", jurors were told.

A police cordon was placed around the field and the force helicopter was deployed, jurors heard.

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, May 6, he was arrested for offences of rape and abduction."

Police body-worn video captured the moment McCann was arrested, jurors were told.

In response to being cautioned, McCann said: "Possible abduction", the court heard.

When it was explained it was "because of the kids in the car", he told officers: "I did not abduct them. Those two girls wanted a lift", the court heard.

Mr Price told jurors that the defendant refused to be interviewed after he was brought to London but made a comment to an officer who accompanied him on the journey which "may be a little closer to the truth".

McCann allegedly told the officer: "If you had caught me for the first two, the rest of this wouldn't have happened."

Joseph McCann told police 'if you'd had caught me for the first two, the rest of this wouldn't have happened', rape trial told

 

[Legally Bland]

A teenage girl jumped naked from a first-floor window to escape alleged serial rapist Joseph McCann before making a desperate 999 call for police to rescue her mother and brother, the Old Bailey heard.

The 17-year-old was seen on CCTV leaping out of the bedroom window and fracturing her heel in the fall, before fleeing to a relative’s house nearby.

In the 999 call, she was heard crying hysterically as she pleaded with police to rush to her home and said: “He’s got a knife... he’s keeping us hostage.” She told the operator: “Get here before he hurts my brother and my mum.”

[...]

Prosecutor John Price QC told jurors this morning McCann is unlikely to deny that he was involved in all the incidents, having left behind a trail of DNA and being captured repeatedly on CCTV. But he said McCann, 34, may claim some of the sexual activity was consensual and other incidents are not true. He told jurors they will have to decide if the 17-year-old girl was lying about her alleged ordeal and putting on a “performance” when she called 999.

Girl ‘jumped naked from window to flee serial rapist’

 

[scapa]

Some odd details in this update:

A man accused of being a serial rapist told his first alleged victim he had just got out of jail after “doing 18 years”, a court has heard.

Joseph McCann, 34, allegedly kidnapped a 21-year-old woman as she walked home from Pryzm nightclub in Watford in the early hours of 21 April. After raping her in her own bed, he claimed she was “one of 15 girlfriends” and scared her by saying he had been in prison, the Old Bailey was told.

Joseph McCann told woman he had just got out of jail, trial hears

 

[tresir2012]

He took a wig off? So that is how he evaded recapture initially IMO. I am still thinking about possible involvement in the case of Leah Croucher. I hope they find out who helped in in the first two months, where he stayed, where he got his vehicles, checking his previous whereabouts etc. I think there could be other unknown victims. MOO.

 

[Legally Bland]

@DannyShawBBC
·
1h

A videolink of the first alleged victim, a woman aged 21 who says #McCann abducted her at knifepoint and raped her after she left a Watford nightclub, is being shown in court and she’s now answering questions from prosecutor John Price QC.


@DannyShawBBC
·
1h

The alleged victim is seated in a room alongside another woman, an official who’s wearing a lanyard. Her videotaped account of what happened in April, given in a police interview, was played to the jury yesterday.


@DannyShawBBC
·
1h

The alleged victim confirms that she put “Joseph McCann” & words “don’t answer” on her phone, next to a phone number, on the day of the attack, on April 21.

 

[Legally Bland]

@DannyShawBBC
·
1h

She also noted the registration number of the Mondeo car she says #McCann was driving. Now, Jo Sidhu QC, representing McCann questions the alleged victim. He says “I make it clear” McCann was the man she was with that day.


@DannyShawBBC
·
1h

Sidhu questions the woman about how much she’d drunk before alleged attack by #McCann. She had almost a bottle of wine at home then 3 or 4 vodkas and Red Bulls at nightclub & agrees she was “quite drunk” but “happy” by the early hours.


@DannyShawBBC
·
1h

Now Sidhu is questioning the woman about why she didn’t book a taxi to take her home from the nightclub. She says her card wasn’t working, she didn’t have money, didn’t want to borrow any so embarked on a 30-minute walk from the club at around 3.30am in Watford.

 

[Legally Bland]

@DannyShawBBC
·
1h

Sidhu says there’s an “alternative picture” to the woman’s claim that she was forced at knifepoint into #McCann’s car. He suggests they got chatting & McCann offered her a lift home which she accepted. The woman denies it. She starts crying, wiping away tears with a tissue


@DannyShawBBC
·
57m

Now, Sidhu is asking the woman why she didn’t “run as fast as you could” when #McCann allegedly forced her into his car. “What if he’d chased me...I didn’t know if he could catch me,” she replies. Just a reminder, Sidhu represents McCann, but the defendant is again not in court


@DannyShawBBC
·
41m

Sidhu suggests the woman’s account of her actions when #McCann allegedly forced her into his car with a knife at her neck “doesn’t make sense”. She replies: “It doesn’t make sense to you, but it makes sense to me.”

 

[tresir2012]

Attacking the victim and victim blaming from the defence. Disgusting. Is he going to do that with all of them? The jury will see thru this. McCann himself said the police should have stopped him after the first two.

 

[Legally Bland]

This is getting ridiculous now.
_____________

@DannyShawBBC
·
4m

Sidhu suggests the woman “happily invited” Joseph #McCann into her flat, had consensual sex with him, took a bath with him & cut herself with a knife claiming he did it. She denies Sidhu’s assertions.

 

[Elainera]

This is getting ridiculous now.
_____________

@DannyShawBBC
·
4m

Sidhu suggests the woman “happily invited” Joseph #McCann into her flat, had consensual sex with him, took a bath with him & cut herself with a knife claiming he did it. She denies Sidhu’s assertions.

Wow is he just making stuff up now? Is there any indication that this might have happened?

 

[Legally Bland]

She was talking on the phone when McCann pulled up and put a knife to her throat, she said.

She shouted to the person she was on the phone to to call the police but he didn't hear her.

McCann then pulled her into the car and threw her phone out of the window, she told the court.

[...]

Asked why she did not scream to neighbours for help as she walked to the flat she said: 'What if i did shout and they didn't hear me? What if i was left stranded?

'I was in heels. I couldn't run. He would have caught me.'

[...]

The woman told how she had wiped herself with a tissue during the ordeal and threw it into her child's room to provide DNA evidence against McCann.

Joseph McCann 'victim' tells court of five-hour rape ordeal | Daily Mail Online

 

[Legally Bland]

Wow is he just making stuff up now? Is there any indication that this might have happened?

It's all made up IMO.

 

[scapa]

Agree that the defence’s version of events is fantasy — very similar in tone to the attempts he made with other victims to give his rapes the veneer of consensual encounters, IMO.

Is JM allowed to refuse to appear for the entire trial? I find that surprising.

 

[Legally Bland]

Agree that the defence’s version of events is fantasy — very similar in tone to the attempts he made with other victims to give his rapes the veneer of consensual encounters, IMO.

Is JM allowed to refuse to appear for the entire trial? I find that surprising.

BBM. I guess so, I'm struggling to think of other times it has happened. I think Russell Bishop refused to go towards the end of his trial but the judge made him turn up for sentencing.

 

[Legally Bland]

@DannyShawBBC
·
23m

Jury is now being shown police video interview with 2nd alleged victim of Joseph #McCann. The woman, 25, says she was grabbed as she walked home from work in April, in east London. She says #McCann threatened to stab her, pushed her in the car & hit her on the face and head.


@DannyShawBBC
·
12m

She tells police she was repeatedly raped & made to perform sexual acts by the attacker who drove around parts of north and east London. She says one rape took place outside a school. He told her we have to kidnap someone, and three times, stopped when they saw someone

 

[Legally Bland]

@DannyShawBBC
·
5m

The jury has heard her ordeal lasted 12 hours during which time it’s alleged #McCann kidnapped another woman from the street in Edgware & raped her. They escaped after the first woman says she “took the big bottle of vodka out of the car and hit him on the head with it..”


@DannyShawBBC
·
2m

The woman tells the police : “It smashed and I dropped the bag and ran away.” During the interview she summarises what happened before being asked about events in detail.

 

[Alyce]

Re attendance at trial - I remember the Kayleigh Haywood trial, the murderer Stephen Beadman did not attend at all, except for verdict day.

 

[Scorpiette]

On what grounds can a defendant refuse to attend a trial? I'm guessing mental or physical health? I can't think of any other reason.

 

[Legally Bland]

On what grounds can a defendant refuse to attend a trial? I'm guessing mental or physical health? I can't think of any other reason.

I don't understand the ins and outs TBH, but maybe if the judge thinks forcing him to attend will just make him disrupt the proceedings?

Quick recap on his first court date in May:

Chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot authorised the use of force to bring him before her after he refused to leave the cells at Westminster magistrates court on Wednesday. But in what is believed to be an unprecedented move, she convened a private hearing inside Belmarsh prison on Thursday.

In an update to reporters in a makeshift courtroom at a nearby conference centre after walking into the jail an hour and 20 minutes earlier, Arbuthnot said the “shortish hearing” had been held in the prison’s healthcare wing. She said McCann “turned his back on the court to begin with” and claimed the “officers stitched me up” before she remanded him in custody until a hearing at the Old Bailey on 23 May.

Joseph McCann hearing held in jail after rape suspect refuses to leave​

 

[scapa]

I don't understand the ins and outs TBH, but maybe if the judge thinks forcing him to attend will just make him disrupt the proceedings?

Quick recap on his first court date in May:

Chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot authorised the use of force to bring him before her after he refused to leave the cells at Westminster magistrates court on Wednesday. But in what is believed to be an unprecedented move, she convened a private hearing inside Belmarsh prison on Thursday.

In an update to reporters in a makeshift courtroom at a nearby conference centre after walking into the jail an hour and 20 minutes earlier, Arbuthnot said the “shortish hearing” had been held in the prison’s healthcare wing. She said McCann “turned his back on the court to begin with” and claimed the “officers stitched me up” before she remanded him in custody until a hearing at the Old Bailey on 23 May.

Joseph McCann hearing held in jail after rape suspect refuses to leave​

I'd forgotten that episode but think you're right -- his track record and personality strongly suggest that he'd aim to disrupt proceedings and use it as yet another chance to show his contempt for authority (i.e., people other than himself).

He's going to have an eventful time once sentenced and back in prison, I suspect. Maybe a Robert Maudsley in the making?