McCann was eventually found hiding up a tree. Photo / Supplied
McCann was eventually found hiding up a tree. Photo / Supplied
Warning: Distressing content.
A UK man accused of a horrific series of sex attacks conned his way into a woman's home before tying her to a bed and forcing her to listen as he raped her 11-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter, a court has heard.
Joseph McCann, 34, is appearing at the Old Bailey on 37 charges including multiple rapes, kidnapping and false imprisonment.
His victims range from the 11-year-old boy to a 71-year-old woman and he is accused of committing the crimes across England in a two-week spree that only ended when he crashed a car containing his final victims - two teenage girls - and was pursued by police.
Prosecutor John Price QC told jurors that McCann has used "shocking depravity and violence" in committing the offences, the Press Association reported.
The court heard he kidnapped his first victim, a 21-year-old woman, at knifepoint as she walked home from London nightclub in the early hours of April 21, before raping her in her own bed.
CCTV captured McCann in a petrol station. Photo / Metropolitan Police
It is alleged he then kidnapped a 25-year-old woman just after midnight on April 25, raping her "many times" over 14 hours before snatching his next victim off a London street in broad daylight, while still holding the 21-year-old hostage in his car.
Jurors were shown CCTV of the alleged abduction, in which the victim is seen being bundled into a car while her younger sister runs home screaming.
McCann then allegedly headed to the north of England where 10 days later he resumed his reign of terror.
Jurors heard he met a woman at a Manchester bar in the early hours of May 5 before taking advantage of her drunken state to con his way into her home.
He then tied the woman to her own bed with electrical cable, forcing her to listen as he raped her 11-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter in front of each other.
The court was told the family only escaped when the daughter jumped from a window and ran for help, calling emergency services to report the attack.
Jurors heard part of the call, where the sobbing girl is heard to say: "He's been keeping us hostage".
Joseph McCann faces numerous charges of sexual violence. Photo / Supplied
Later that day McCann is accused of kidnapping a 71-year-old woman and inflicting "gross sexual indignity and violence upon her" before kidnapping a 13-year-old girl and forcing the elderly woman to take the wheel as he sexually assaulted the child.
The next day he kidnapped two teenage girls in Cheshire and stopped at a petrol station to buy condoms before spotting a marked police car and crashing his own vehicle, running from the scene and leaving the girls behind, prosecutors told the court.
He then stole a bicycle before leading police on a chase that ended when he was found hiding up a tree.
After a long stand-off he was arrested and taken back to London to be interviewed.
Prosecutor John Price QC told the jury: "Though he refused to be interviewed after he arrived in London, Joseph McCann did say something of relevance to an officer involved in accompanying him on that journey.
"This was perhaps a little closer to the truth. He told DC Foxwell: 'If you had caught me for the first two, the rest of this wouldn't have happened.'"
The trial is set down for six weeks.
SEXUAL HARM - DO YOU NEED HELP?
If it's an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
