Serial rapist Joseph McCann, who embarked on a horrific campaign of kidnap and sex attacks, has been given an “unprecedented” 33 life sentences with a minimum term of 30 years.
The judge handing out the sentence called McCann “a coward, a violent bully and pedophile”.
He added: “You have never expressed a word of regret or concern for your victims” and “I have no doubt you are a threat to children and women.”
Mr Justice Edis told the court the victims “possess more courage” than McCann, who did not turn up during the trial or for his sentencing. He claimed he had a “bad back”.
The judge called McCann a “classic psychopath” and also read out a victim statement. It described how one of the women McCann attacked has had to move home and is unable to walk outside at night, as well as developing chronic pain amd symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder.
The vicim said: “There has been a significant change in my lifestyle. I used to be very independent with no fear of going out and doing things alone.
In his sentencing statement, Mr Justice Edis said: “This was a campaign of rape, violence and abduction of a kind which I have never seen or heard of before.”
He continued: “Joseph McCann you are very dangerous indeed to people who are weaker then you are.
“Among other things you are a coward and violent bully and a pedophile.
“Your grip on reality is quite tenuous, your instructions to lawyers were utterly ridiculous.
“You are entirely obsessed with yourself. In your world other people exist only for your pleasure and you have no ability to see the world in anybody’s eyes other than your own.
“You are a classic psychopath.”
Explaining his use of the word coward, Mr Justice Edis told McCann: “‘You have been unable to face your accusers, and have chosen instead to hide in your cell, whining about the conditions in which you are being held.”
Mr Justice Edis praised the bravery of the victims, those who helped or attempted to aid the victims, the investigation team, the jury and both the prosecution and defence lawyers “in a case which was not easy for either side.”
McCann, who was out on licence from prison at the time of his attacks, should have been referred to the Parole Board before he was freed in February this year.
The judge called for an independent investigation into how the system “failed to protect” McCann’s victims from him.
He allegedly used a “support network” to elude police capture. Four men and two women have been arrested on suspicion of assisting McCann and released under investigation.
McCann first struck in the early hours of 21 April, as his victim left the Pryzm nightclub in the centre of Watford.
A 21-year-old woman recounted the moment a knife was held against her neck and she was forced into McCann’s car and driven back to her home, where McCann raped her in her own bed.
McCann’s second victim was 25-year-old woman who had just left a Tube station around half past midnight on 25 April, in the east London borough of Walthamstow.
She was grabbed at knife point and forced into another car by McCann. Her rape and sexual assault spanned more than 12 hours. She told police she had lost count of the number of times she was assaulted.
By 12.15 that same afternoon, in Edgware, northwest London, McCann attempted to grab two sisters walking home along a residential street. The youngest sister managed to run home and call police.
Her 21-year-old sister was bundled into the back of the vehicle, alongside the woman abducted the night before. McCann raped and sexually assaulted them for a further two hours.
Spotting an opportunity, the 25-year-old woman managed to grab a bottle of vodka from inside the vehicle and smash it over McCann’s head. They were able to escape, while McCann fled the scene.
Ten days later, McCann met a woman at a nightclub in Haslingden, north of Manchester. He returned with the woman to her home, where he tied her to a bed. He then raped her 11-year-old son in front of the boy’s 17-year-old sister, who he also raped.
The teenage girl jumped naked from the bedroom window and ran to a neighbour’s house to call the police.
Hours later, a 71-year-old woman was abducted as she finished shopping at a supermarket in Ramsbottom.
She was raped before McCann abducted a 13-year-old girl. The two victims managed to flee when the car stopped at Knutsford services on the M6.
Half an hour later, his final victims, two 14-year-old girls, were abducted from a street in Congleton in Cheshire in the 71-year-old’s car.
A patrol car spotted the stolen vehicle in Congleton and gave chase. McCann tried to outrun the police car, his two terrified teenage victims in the back seat.
He crashed and fled. After a huge manhunt, he was found hiding halfway up a tree and was arrested.
McCann’s reign of terror spanned two weeks. He denied the charges against him and did not give evidence in his defence.
The Metropolitan Police have said McCann has been “handed an unprecedented 33 life sentences for his horrific crimes.”
