Serial rapist Joseph McCann was one of UK’s first ASBO yobs who terrorised neighbours, set cars ablaze and shoplifted
SADISTIC serial rapist Joseph McCann was one of Britain’s first ASBO yobs after terrorising locals by setting cars alight and shoplifting. McCann, 34, was just 14 when he was slapped with the Anti-Social Behaviour Order alongside his brothers Michael and Sean. The teen tearaways rampaged through the poverty-stricken Manchester estate they lived on – robbing […]
SADISTIC serial rapist Joseph McCann was one of Britain’s first ASBO yobs after terrorising locals by setting cars alight and shoplifting.
McCann, 34, was just 14 when he was slapped with the Anti-Social Behaviour Order alongside his brothers Michael and Sean.
The teen tearaways rampaged through the poverty-stricken Manchester estate they lived on – robbing terrified locals and setting cars alight.
When they were sentenced in 1999, McCann and brother Sean flicked V-signs at photographers outside court.
Their campaign of terror on the gritty Beswick estate finally came to an end when they were banned from the area.
McCann’s chequered past has come to light after he was today convicted of a sickening two-week rape spree across the country.
He was convicted of 37 charges including the rape of a child under 13, kidnap, and sexual assault concerning 11 alleged victims.
‘SCUM OF THE EARTH’
One resident told MailOnline: “They were a horrible family, absolutely vile – scum of the earth.”
The brothers even went to the Court of Appeal to try and overturn the conditions of the ASBO – but top judges blocked their pleas.
Undettered, the feckless brood then moved to Aylesbury, Bucks, and Middlesex where they linked up with their traveller relatives.
McCann, who began dabbling in crime in 1998 when he was convicted of shoplifting, continued his yobbish behaviour in his new home.
The family “brought havoc” to Middlesex – with McCann and one of his brothers repeatedly stealing cars and setting them ablaze.
‘THEY WOULD BEAT YOU UP’
They soon became notorious on the estate – with locals too petrified to challenge the thug brothers.
One said: “There used to be a brick wall outside their house. But they took all the bricks out to throw them at people.
“If you said anything to them they would threaten to beat you up. There were two older boys and one little one. They were really horrible.
“They were part of a gang. Their house was like their headquarters.”
McCann spent the years in and out of prison for a string of offences including theft and burglary.
In 2008, the beast burst into the home of an 85-year-old man and threatened to knife him in a brutal burglary in Bedford.
SEX ATTACK SPREE
He was caged for a minimum of two years and later released on licence when he was arrested for another burglary.
Despite being on an indeterminate sentence, McCann was released from prison in February automatically half-way through a three-year sentence.
The mistake meant he was able to embark on his grisly rampage between April 21 and May 5.
McCann abducted victims from the street and threatened some at knifepoint before brutally raping them for hours on end.
He wore wigs, told victims he loved them and claimed they were part of a “gypsy initiation ritual”.
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The monster was finally stopped after a dramatic five-hour stand-off with cops when the fiend fled up a tree.
It has since emerged McCann’s brother Sean, 32, killed himself in prison in 2016 while serving two years for assault.
McCann will be sentenced on December 9 and is facing life in jail.
Joseph McCann, 34, denied 37 rape, kidnap and false imprisonment charges relating to 11 alleged victims aged between 11 and 71
