'I'm disturbed by nightmares and pain': One of Joseph McCann's 11 victims tells how 'psycho' robbed her of life as a 'thriving' 25-year-old professional woman who dreamt of a family - as he's jailed for 30 years for rape rampage

• Sex attacker Joseph McCann, 34, has today been jailed for minimum of 30 years
• McCann attacked 11 women and children after being freed from jail by mistake
• He snatched victims off street at knifepoint in Watford, London and North West
• He was handed 33 life sentences after being found guilty of 37 charges, including eight rapes, false imprisonment, kidnap
• Victim impact statement read to court by one of his victims told how she suffers with Post traumatic stress disorder

A victim of serial sex attacker Joseph McCann has today told how her ordeal has left her in chronic physical pain, made her unable to go outside at night and plagued by nightmares.

The 25-year-old woman, one of McCann's 11 victims during his two week drug and alcohol fuelled rampage, says she suffers with post traumatic stress disorder and has 'replaced a life of thriving with one of surviving.' 

The emotional impact statement was read to the court today as convicted burglar McCann, who was freed by mistake just two months earlier, was handed 33 life sentences at the Old Bailey and told he must serve a minimum of 30 years in prison.

The victim, the second in his 15 day spree across London, Watford and the North East, was dragged into McCann's Ford S Max car at knifepoint just minutes after she got off the Tube at Blackhorse Road station after finishing work.

It was the start of a 14 hour ordeal in which she would be raped repeatedly and forced to undergo depraved sex acts. She eventually managed to escape by smashing a vodka bottle over his head.

She said in a statement read to the court today that she has been forced to move house because her house and neighbourhood 'triggered flashbacks' and made her feel 'constantly unsafe', and her dreams of starting a family have been left in tatters.

She told how 'going for a run, going out for the evening, going on holiday — doing any of these things alone is now impossible' and said 'it will take a long time to regain that freedom.'

She also revealed how seeking help for the trauma 'has been complicated' and was told there was a waiting list of up to a year on the NHS, so had to pay for it herself - which she said has made her feel 'let down.' 

McCann, described by the judge today as a 'classic psychopath' allegedly used a 'support network' across the country to evade police, despite being identified as a suspect on the day of his first attack.

He should never have been at liberty to commit the vile crimes and the head of the prison service apologised unreservedly for the catastrophic error. 

Probation staff in the area he was being supervised had to work under 'catastrophic conditions' due to their immense workloads, union leaders have claimed.  

McCann, who had addresses in Aylesbury and Harrow, refused to attend his Old Bailey trial, instead chosing to remain in prison rather than sit in the dock. 

Again today he failed to appear, and the judge was handed a note saying the reason he was not present in the dock was because of a bad back. His legal team claimed on his behalf that the women he was accused of molesting had consensual sex, but that was dismissed as 'ludicrous' by victims. 

In his absence, Mr Justice Edis handed him 33 life sentences with a minimum term of 30 years, saying McCann had committed 'a campaign of rape, violence and abduction of a kind which I have never seen or heard of before.'

The victim's impact statement said: 'Immediately after the incident, I was scared to go home and didn't go back to my house for weeks. I found it difficult to sleep and was very physically weak even walking up and down the stairs was hard, I barely left the house and didn't go to work.

'I had to move house, which was an expensive and emotionally distressing process — my house, my road and my neighbourhood was now full of reminders which triggered flashbacks and made me feel constantly unsafe. I lost a tight-knit community of neighbours.

'I felt acutely aware that everyone on the road knew what had happened. I could no longer share a home with my housemate, who was also traumatised by what had happened. I couldn't travel anywhere unaccompanied, or be in the house alone. It took me weeks to be able to walk a few doors down the road to a local shop on my own, with my thumb hovering over the button on the panic phone in my pocket.

'When I went back to work, I had to be accompanied to and from my workplace by my partner or a friend, and take much more regular breaks as I now often feel overwhelmed by time spent with a lot of people.

'I am still unable to walk around after dark. I have to be picked up at the tube station to walk home in the evening. Even in the daytime I often feel jumpy and afraid, at home or outside.

'Going for a run, going out for the evening, going on holiday — doing any of these things alone is now impossible, and it will take a long time to regain that freedom.

How McCann was twice released from prison despite a judge finding he was 'dangerous' 

2008 - Joseph McCann threatened to stab an 85-year-old man in his home. He told the elderly man 'give me money or I will knife you' before taking his wallet and banking papers. He was jailed for an indeterminate term and told he cannot apply for parole for two and a half years.

Early 2017 - McCann is released on licence by the parole board.

Late 2017 - While on licence, he commits a burglary and is returned to prison on a three-year sentence.

February 2019 - McCann is wrongly released without having gone before the parole board. Instead, he is released automatically half way through his three-year jail term.

April and May 2019 - McCann goes on two-week rampage of rape, sexual assault and kidnap.

'This is a significant and limiting change in my lifestyle. I used to be a very independent person with very little fear of going out and doing things alone. I am now much more dependent on other people, which changes those relationships.

'It also impacts my partner, his studies and his social life as he spends time helping me, even as he suffers with the traumatic psychological fallout of having heard me being abducted and having feared that I was dead.'

The woman said she has 'found solace' in therapeutic activities which helps her deal with flashbacks.

She told how her work has been affected, as she is unable to concentrate and she finds it difficult to have the motivation to do even the most basic of tasks. She has suffered a huge loss of income, and is left feeling 'worried and insecure.' 

She also told how she suffers from 'chronic pain throughout my body as a result of both whiplash and the assault' adding she is 'nervous about seeking physical treatment which might trigger my body's memory of the assault.'

She continued: 'A routine smear test would mean reliving the forensic process I underwent hours after being attacked, and I worry about my health as a result. My sleep remains disturbed by nightmares and physical pain, and I am chronically fatigued.

'I continue to have flashbacks, to dissociate and to have intrusive and emotionally distressing thoughts as a result of the trauma incurred. This has also led me to avoid things which could remind me of the event and trigger that response, such as my old neighbourhood, or physical intimacy with my partner.

'I now rigorously check for distressing content before I read a book, watch a film or TV programme or go to a play. I have lost interest in things I used to love, like playing music and going swimming.

'These things that came easily to me, that were so much of who I am, have become hard work.

'I have become more socially isolated from my friends and peers, because it's hard to be close to someone if they don't know what I'm going through, but it's even harder to tell them, and several months of silence or superficial conversation takes its toll on a relationship.

'I often feel like I'm hiding a terrible secret, and I can't connect with people like I used to as a result. When I do spend time working or socialising, I am having to work hard to seem like my old self, which takes twice the energy.'

She added: 'My partner and I now both exhibit the symptoms of PTSD and it's hard to hold on to our relationship as we knew it whilst balancing caring for each other in a traumatised state.'

Probation worker sacked after McCann recall shambles

The head of HM Prisons and Probation Service, has apologised 'unreservedly' for failings in the Joseph McCann case. 

The Ministry of Justice launched an inquiry into why McCann was not recalled to prison after committing a burglary following his release from an indeterminate sentence for aggravated burglary.  

Four probation officers from the Watford office faced a disciplinary, the BBC reported today, one of whom was demoted.

In a separate investigation, another worker was sacked and another had their contract terminated. 

Chief executive Jo Farrar said today: 'We recognise that there were failings and we apologise unreservedly for our part in this. We are committed to doing everything we possibly can to learn from this terrible case.

'We have taken strong and immediate action against those involved in the management of McCann's case and are taking significant steps to improve intelligence sharing between agencies.

'At the same time, we are developing new mandatory training on recall for all probation officers and we have updated guidance on the threshold for recalling an offender to prison.'

Referencing having to relive her ordeal in court, she said: 'The questions I was asked when I testified in court were therefore not new to me. 

'They are the same questions which keep me up at night and go round and round my mind in the day — could I, should I have acted differently, got away sooner? Was this failure to escape sooner than I did in some way my fault?

'The defence's questions echoed, and threatened to confirm, these intrusive and distressing thoughts. The fact that I am here to write this statement is testament to the answer: no. I had one chance. I did what I could in a situation that thankfully most people have no experience or understanding of - a situation for which nothing in my life had prepared me — and I survived.

'The future now looks very different for me. Before this crime, I was optimistic about my life and I felt safe in the world.

'My friendships and my career were flourishing, I was planning to take my driving test, and the plants I'd sown in my old garden were beginning to bear fruit. My partner and I were talking about starting a family together in the next three years.

'My aspirations, both small and big, and my vision of a positive future, have been violently taken from me. To replace a life of thriving with one of surviving is deeply demoralising and difficult.'

Sentencing McCann today, Mr Justice Edis said there should be an independent investigation into how the system 'failed to protect' McCann's victims from him.

He said: '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 paedophile.

'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.'                    

Paying tribute to his victims, the judge said: 'Each of these stories is tragic. I hope each will find a way to live through their ordeal and future happiness.'

On Friday, the jury deliberated for five hours to find him guilty of 37 charges relating to 11 victims, including eight rapes, false imprisonment and kidnap.   

McCann was freed automatically from jail in February – halfway through a three-year sentence. The decision to release him should instead have been made after consideration by the Parole Board.

This was because he was on lifelong licence for an aggravated burglary in 2007. However this earlier offence was not factored into his three-year sentence, with the result that parole officers were not informed about his case.

Probation staff where Joseph McCann lived forced to endure 'chaotic conditions' and were under 'huge pressure' due to workload

Probation staff in the region where Joseph McCann was supervised operated in 'chaotic conditions' due to the size of their workloads, a union leader has said.

Ian Lawrence, general secretary of Napo, said staff nationally are working under 'massive pressure' and called for a public inquiry into the effects of part-privatising the service four years ago.

The South East and Eastern National Probation Service (NPS) - which was responsible for McCann's supervision - was one of 21 rated as requiring improvement when it was inspected in May and showed failings in key areas like workload and staffing.

In findings published in September, inspectors called on the Government to intervene after warning that probation officers handling high-risk offenders were buckling under the pressure of workload and staff shortages.

As of March, the division was supervising more than 16,000 criminals and just over 35% were proven re-offenders.

Probation officers were dealing with at least 42 cases each on average - the highest of any of the seven NPS divisions, according to the report.

Mr Lawrence said: 'The chaotic conditions caused by staff shortages and workloads were not uncommon.

'The staffing levels across the NPS are at crisis levels. I'm not surprised that mistakes can be made when staff are working under massive pressure.

'When probation was part privatised in 2015 we said that the fragmentation of the service would lower morale and lead to people quitting the service, and they did.

'Napo wants a public inquiry into the whole of the impact of privatisation. We think that the people who engineered and imposed this should be called to account for what they have done.'

He explained that after his release, McCann would have been supervised based on his convictions for burglary.

'He did go under the radar. The supervision would have been based on the crimes he had committed, not the suspicion he was going to commit rape.'

There are currently 1,000 vacancies in the NPS across England and Wales.

The September report found that half the staff interviewed by inspectors said their workload was unmanageable and that there were 102 vacancies for officers at the time, a 16% gap in expected staffing levels.

It concluded that more could be done to 'identify and manage risks'.

More than a third of inspected cases were not being reviewed when circumstances changed and only half were properly focused on 'keeping people safe', according to the report.

It added: 'Staff relied too much on the individual's explanation of their offence, rather than corroborating facts with other sources.'

Nearly half (49%) of inspected probation reports did not include full information about the potential risk of harm posed by criminals and factors like child safeguarding were not properly assessed.

Mr Justice Edis, the judge in McCann's trial, has called for an independent review of the failures surrounding the case.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: 'We note the remarks by Mr Justice Edis relating to an independent investigation and we are carefully considering the next steps.'

Following a Ministry of Justice investigation, one staff member has been found guilty of gross misconduct and demoted. Another probe saw a staff member who worked on McCann's case sacked and another had their contract terminated.

Calls were made for an independent inquiry into McCann's release and Nick Hardwick, former chairman of the Parole Board, said a senior figure should take the blame.

There were also questions about poor communication between neighbouring police forces during McCann's rampage. McCann began his descent into crime as a child, thieving and torching cars neighbours in Manchester.

Aged 14 he became one of the first teenagers to be given an Anti Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) for terrorising local residents.

The son of a Scottish builder and a mother with links to the traveller community, McCann was given an indeterminate sentence for public protection in 2008 when he burgled the home of an 85-year-old man and held a knife to his throat.

McCann later insisted he wanted to 'live a crime free life' to look after his partner and two children.

But his older brother Sean, 32, killed himself in Peterborough prison in 2016 while serving a two-year sentence for assault. 

The court heard he had a string of convictions in the North West and South East of England, having received his first term behind bars at the age of 15.

While he had no convictions for sexual offences he did have a 'history of violence and threats towards partners of his', prosecutor John Price QC said.

Crimes included escaping custody by grabbing and threatening a female Group 4 security guard with a plastic knife, possessing a blade, robbery and two burglaries.

Since his release in February, McCann was seen by probation officers 10 times. The last occasion was on April 19, three days before McCann committed his first rape.

A probation officer said McCann had attended the Watford probation office where he was served with a warning for failing to disclose a new relationship, under the terms of his licence because of his history of domestic violence.

McCann was 'not happy' about it and when his new fiancee's parents found out about the condition they broke off the relationship because they thought he was a sex offender.   

McCann, was described as 'pure evil' as jurors heard how he drove around the country drinking vodka and snorting cocaine while performing horrific acts on his victims. 

His depraved rampage, which the detective who led the investigation said was the 'most horrendous sex offending' she had ever seen, began in Watford on April 21.

He abducted a 21-year-old at knifepoint as she walked home from a nightclub and raped the mother of one on her own bed. Afterwards McCann told her rape is 'what we do in the traveller community'.

A string of appalling offences followed over the next two weeks.

He targeted victims in London, Manchester and Cheshire, tricking his way into one woman's home before tying her up and molesting her son and daughter.

He was eventually caught by police while hiding up a tree in Cheshire. 

A jury at the Old Bailey found McCann guilty of 37 offences including false imprisonment, rape, rape of a child, kidnap and sexual assault. The jurors sent a note to the judge that read: 'The jury want to acknowledge the bravery of all the victims in this case and the courage it has taken for them to come forward.'

McCann refused to be interviewed at any stage of the investigation and refused to leave his cell at Belmarsh Prison in south-east London to appear in court.      

Four men and two women have been arrested on suspicion of aiding McCann while he was on the run. 

Mr Hardwick said: 'I would like to see someone more senior, someone at the head of the organisation to step up and take responsibility for what has gone wrong here. There is no way McCann should have been released and the Parole Board would not have let it happen had they been involved.

'This has been blamed on individual human error – but this is an indication of wider problems in the system. And if you were to ask 'could this happen again?' of course it could, unless wider problems are addressed.'

The 11 victims of McCann two-week reign of terror

London crimes

• McCann's first victim was a 21-year-old single mum walking home from a nightclub in Watford in the early hours of the morning on April 20. After bundling her into his car he forced the victim to drive to her flat where he raped her on her own bed. 
• Five days later a 25-year-old woman walking home from work was snatched off the street by McCann just yards from her home. The woman endured a 14 hour ordeal while repeatedly raped in McCann's car. 
• A 21-year-old woman was then snatched off the street while his second victim was still in the car. She was raped and forced to carry out degrading sex acts.

North West crimes

• On May 5, McCann struck again after meeting a woman at a bar in Lancashire and going back to her home. He tied the woman up with cable from her hairdryer and then subjected her 17-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son to a horrific four hour sex ordeal where they were both raped. 
• McCann then abducted a 71-year-old woman in the car park of a supermarket. He later raped her in the car during a five hour ordeal.
• He then abducted two 13-year-old boys and a 13-year-old girl in Manchester. The girl was sexually assaulted while the boys were released. 
• His final victims were two 14-year-old girls who crouched in terror on the back seat of his stolen car while being chased by police.

David Green of the think-tank Civitas said: 'This case highlights just how dysfunctional our justice system can be.'

Richard Burgon, Labour's justice spokesman, said: 'There must now be a full independent review into what led to these shocking failures including what role deep government cuts to the Ministry of Justice budget and chaotic probation reforms played.'

Jo Farrar, chief executive of HM Prisons and Probation Service, said: 'We recognise that there were failings and we apologise unreservedly for our part in this.

'We are committed to doing everything we possibly can to learn from this terrible case. We have taken strong and immediate action against those involved.' 

Jurors were played a recording of the mother's 999 call in which she pleads with police to find her daughter.'

'A man grabbed my 21-year-old about five minutes ago,' she says, as her younger daughter is heard wailing in the background.

'He tried to grab both of them but got hold of one of my daughters and the other ran away.' 

There was already another woman, aged 25, in the car. She had been abducted in the early hours of that morning as she walked home in Walthamstow, east London.

John Price QC, prosecuting, said the 25-year-old woman had been raped 'many times' and subjected to acts of 'shocking depravity and violence'. 

She had also been made to perform sexual acts on McCann, who threatened to throw her into a canal to destroy DNA evidence.

'He made her call him 'Daddy' and say that she was a child,' said Mr Price. 'At one point the man parked the car near to a school, saying that he wanted to make her rape a child. He raped [the woman] at that location.' 

Prosecutor Mr Price said the 21-year-old snatched from the street was also raped and made to perform 'depraved' sexual acts.

The pair eventually escaped after the 25-year-old smashed a vodka bottle over McCann's head, giving them time to run to a group of nearby builders in Watford. 

McCann then went on the rampage in the North-West, picking up a mother in a bar in Lancashire before tying her up and raping her 17-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son in their home.

He then abducted his eldest victim, a 71-year-old woman, from a nearby Morrisons supermarket car park.

McCann let himself into the passenger door of her Fiat Punto as she began driving out of the car park, then punched her hard in the face, the Old Bailey was told.

He is said to have sexually assaulted her and then ordered her to drive him to Heywood, where he forced a 13-year-old girl to get into the car before sexually assaulted her too.  They were able to escape at Knutsford service station on the M6.

McCann is alleged to have fled in the car, and little more than half an hour later used it to abduct two 14-year-old girls in Congleton, Cheshire. A friend rang police from a nearby shop.

Hundreds of officers from forces across the country were involved in the manhunt once McCann had been identified as the rape suspect.

During his remand court appearances McCann refused to take part in the proceedings with a magistrate having to go to his cell.

He refused to attend the Old Bailey trial leaving police involved rolling their eyes in disbelief when his QC produced a list of excuses.

McCann claimed he was suffering sleepless nights and had back problems. He also claimed prison officers were picking on him and complained about the food at Belmarsh Prison.

Unusually for such a high profile case the jurors never saw him during the three week trial and he was not in the dock when they found him guilty after five hours of deliberation.

One officer in the case said: ' This just showed what a coward McCann is. He subjected these girls, women and a boy to the most horrific abuse, yet did not have the guts to face them in court.'

McCann's QC Jo Sidu offered no defence other than to claim the sexual assaults and rape were all consensual.

CPS lawyer Tetteh Turkson said: 'The court heard today the impact McCann's brutal campaign of rape has had, and will continue to have, on his victims. He is a dangerous man who has shown no remorse for his cruel and sickening actions.

'He has now been given a life sentence and will serve 30 years before being considered for release. Our hope is that the victims in this case, all of whom have shown immense bravery, are now able to move on with their lives following these truly horrendous crimes.'

'I am still unable to walk around after dark': Full impact statement by Joseph McCann's 25-year-old victim

'I am requesting that this statement be read out in court because during the last few months

I have looked for reassurance that I am not alone in the stories of other victims and survivors.

'I hope that putting this on the record can do the same for someone else. My thoughts are constantly with the other victims of these attacks.

'Immediately after the incident, I was scared to go home and didn't go back to my house for weeks. I found it difficult to sleep and was very physically weak even walking up and down the stairs was hard, I barely left the house and didn't go to work.

'I had to move house, which was an expensive and emotionally distressing process - my house, my road and my neighbourhood was now full of reminders which triggered flashbacks and made me feel constantly unsafe. I lost a tight-knit community of neighbours.

'I felt acutely aware that everyone on the road knew what had happened. I could no longer share a home with my housemate, who was also traumatised by what had happened. I couldn't travel anywhere unaccompanied, or be in the house alone. It took me weeks to be able to walk a few doors down the road to a local shop on my own, with my thumb hovering over the button on the panic phone in my pocket.

'When I went back to work, I had to be accompanied to and from my workplace by my partner or a friend, and take much more regular breaks as I now often feel overwhelmed by time spent with a lot of people.

'I am still unable to walk around after dark. I have to be picked up at the tube station to walk home in the evening. Even in the daytime I often feel jumpy and afraid, at home or outside.

'Going for a run, going out for the evening, going on holiday - doing any of these things alone is now impossible, and it will take a long time to regain that freedom.

'This is a significant and limiting change in my lifestyle. I used to be a very independent person with very little fear of going out and doing things alone. I am now much more dependent on other people, which changes those relationships.

'It also impacts my partner, his studies and his social life as he spends time helping me, even as he suffers with the traumatic psychological fallout of having heard me being abducted and having feared that I was dead.

'I have found some solace in therapeutic activities and techniques which help to ease my mind from dissociative episodes, intrusive thoughts and flashbacks.

'This means that my life as a young woman in her twenties looks very different to how it did - I spend more time at home, managing my trauma, where I used to spend my time throwing myself into the work I love, hanging out with friends, living spontaneously and engaging gregariously with the world. This has been a huge loss for me, especially at what was such an exciting time in my life and career.

'As things stand now, I am still unable to take on as much work or the same kinds of work that I used to. I've suffered a huge loss of income as a result of this, and this financial precarity makes me feel worried and insecure.

'Where I used to find work joyful and purposeful, my limited energy and inability to focus or concentrate now means that my work is a source of stress.. It is difficult to have the motivation to do even the most basic tasks at work, at home or for my own self-care.

'I suffer from chronic pain throughout my body as a result of both whiplash and the assault, but am nervous about seeking physical treatment which might trigger my body's memory of the assault.

'A routine smear test would mean reliving the forensic process I underwent hours after being attacked, and I worry about my health as a result. My sleep remains disturbed by nightmares and physical pain, and I am chronically fatigued.

'I continue to have flashbacks, to dissociate and to have intrusive and emotionally distressing thoughts as a result of the trauma incurred. This has also led me to avoid things which could remind me of the event and trigger that response, such as my old neighbourhood, or physical intimacy with my partner.

'I now rigorously check for distressing content before I read a book, watch a film or TV programme or go to a play. I have lost interest in things I used to love, like playing music and going swimming.

'These things that came easily to me, that were so much of who I am, have become hard work.

'I have become more socially isolated from my friends and peers, because it's hard to be close to someone if they don't know what I'm going through, but it's even harder to tell them, and several months of silence or superficial conversation takes its toll on a relationship.

'I often feel like I'm hiding a terrible secret, and I can't connect with people like I used to as a result. When I do spend time working or socialising, I am having to work hard to seem like my old self, which takes twice the energy.

'On the other hand, the people who do know my partner, family and close friends, as well as my employer at the time now know far more than I would have been comfortable disclosing to them, as a result of the graphic details of the assault which were gratuitously published in the press throughout the trial.

'When I think about what they have discovered in the news, and how they must feel about that, I feel exposed and vulnerable all over again, and sad that I can't protect them from that horror. Witnessing the ripples of trauma that have affected mine and my partner's family and friends has been very distressing.

'My partner and I now both exhibit the symptoms of PTSD and it's hard to hold on to our relationship as we knew it whilst balancing caring for each other in a traumatised state.

'The process of seeking help for the effects of this trauma has been complicated, After being told there was a waiting list of eight months to a year for long-term counselling, I sought counselling myself after several months as a way to have some control over that process.

'I am now in therapy, but paying for it myself makes me feel let down and like I am betraying the services that I know should be available for victims and survivors. I have been met with the utmost care, empathy and respect by nurses, doctors, advisers and police officers, to whom I owe more thanks than it is possible to express.

'However, the evident scarcity, underresourcing and overstretching of specialist services for survivors has intensified my sense of isolation and abandonment by a society in which I used to feel safe. It feels like what has happened to me is not a social priority unless it's being sensationalised in the news.

'Whilst I am glad that justice is being sought, the trial was also an intensely traumatic event in which I had to relive what happened to me in great detail.

'The misplaced guilt which often plagues victims of rape and sexual assault is well-known and documented, and my experience has been no different.

'The questions I was asked when I testified in court were therefore not new to me. They are the same questions which keep me up at night and go round and round my mind in the day - could I, should I have acted differently, got away sooner? Was this failure to escape sooner than I did in some way my fault?

'The defence's questions echoed, and threatened to confirm, these intrusive and distressing thoughts. The fact that I am here to write this statement is testament to the answer: no. I had one chance. I did what I could in a situation that thankfully most people have no experience or understanding of - a situation for which nothing in my life had prepared me - and I survived.

'The future now looks very different for me. Before this crime, I was optimistic about my life and I felt safe in the world.

'My friendships and my career were flourishing, I was planning to take my driving test, and the plants I'd sown in my old garden were beginning to bear fruit. My partner and I were talking about starting a family together in the next three years.

'My aspirations, both small and big, and my vision of a positive future, have been violently taken from me. To replace a life of thriving with one of surviving is deeply demoralising and difficult.

'I can only hope that this process will take us one step closer to building a society in which rape and sexual assault are never excused, in which the voices of victims and survivors are heard and respected, and in which this can never happen to anybody else.'

EXCLUSIVE: Life of crime from 11: Serial rapist Joseph McCann spent childhood stealing, setting fire to cars and terrorising neighbours as he became one of first in Britain to be given an ASBO aged 14

Evil sex beast Joseph McCann spent his childhood stealing, setting fire to cars and terrorising his terrified neighbours.

So violent were he and his brothers that he became one of the first in Britain to be given an ASBO, aged just 14.

The trio ran a campaign of intimidation on their impoverished Manchester estate during the 90s.

For years McCann, his elder brother Sean and younger brother Michael struck fear into locals.

One told MailOnline: 'They were a horrible family, absolutely vile - scum of the earth.'

The brothers became notorious in 1999 when they were given the first ASBOs and emerged from court defiant. 

Staring down the cameras, McCann and his brothers, Sean then 16 and Michael, 12, were seen swearing and grinning.

McCann grew up on the Beswick estate in Manchester, a deprived area of the city which has now been knocked down.

Born in 1985, the son of Richard, a Scottish builder and Margaret, a mother with links to the traveller community, he grew up with a fierce temper and struggled to control his anger. 

He and his brothers stole for sport and threatened anyone who got in their way.

At the age of 11 he had his first brush with the police and was convicted in 1998 for theft.

So prolific was the three boys stealing that when they were finally banned from the estate the following year, takings at the local shops increased by £14,000 a week.

Forced to moved from Beswick, they headed south to Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire, and Middlesex where they linked up with their traveller relatives.

Former neighbours on a quiet estate in Wealdstone, Middlesex, recalled how they lived in fear of the McCanns who issued threats to anyone who challenged them.

'They arrived overnight and brought havoc,' one neighbour told MailOnline. 'Everyone quickly got to know about the McCanns. They were awful.

'Joseph and his brother were always stealing cars. They'd drive the cars around and then they'd burn them on our little green. The police would be around their house all the time.

'One time they drove this van into the back garden. We called the police and they said it had been stolen about 15 minutes beforehand.'

He added: 'We heard that they had had to leave where they used to live because it became too hot for them.'  

McCann was in and out of prison until 2008 when armed with a knife, he broke into the home of a frail 85-year-old man in Bedford.

The pensioner was watching TV when McCann burst in through a sidedoor and threatened to stab the pensioner before stealing several items.

When McCann was jailed in 2008, his then girlfriend was pregnant with their second child. They already had a very young child.

Her name is believed to have been 'Bobbie' and it was this name which he had tattooed across his stomach. 

McCann spent the next 11 years in prison before being released, jailed again in 2018 and then released earlier this year for his devastating two week attack.

It was a marked shift of brutality for a man who until this year has focused pn carrying out violent burglaries. 

After his years in and out of prison, the McCann family are believed to have finally moved out of Wealdstone for good some six or seven years ago.

Another neighbour said: 'I breathed a sigh of relief when they did. They used to throw bricks at anyone.

'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.

'The boys were always out in the street. There was no way of avoiding them. Everyone knew the McCanns. But there was nothing we could do.

'They were part of a gang. Their house was like their headquarters.'

Always close to his brothers, McCann was left bereft after Sean, 32, committed suicide in Peterborough prison in 2016 while serving a two-year sentence for assault. 

Today, McCann's parents live in a modest semi-detached bungalow on the outskirts of Aylesbury.

His father, Richard McCann, drives a 2019-plate 4x4 Ford Kuga car which is often parked on a driveway by the front door.

A sign on the wall warns visitors; 'Beware of the wife.'

Part of a trailer lies on the driveway while a mobile home is parked in the garden behind a high wooden fence.

The semi-detached property is guarded by security cameras.

'His eyes were pure evil': Teenager, 17, who was raped in her own home by Joseph McCann revealed how he told her to have sex with her brother, 11, before she jumped naked from first floor window to save her family

Pprosecutors and police hailed the incredible bravery of the victims who escaped Joseph McCann's clutches.

McCann kept the women and children he snatched from the streets locked in his car for hours while raping others and holding them at knifepoint in their own homes.

A 17-year-old girl had to jump from the first floor window of her Lancashire home after McCann abducted her mother and tied her up at their house.

McCann raped the 17-year-old and her 11-year-old brother.

The 17-year-old said in a statement to police: 'You know when you can see inside someone's eyes and you know they are pure evil.'

The girl fractured her heel when she jumped out of a window naked to escape and she feared McCann had killed her mother and brother in revenge for her getting away.

Another of McCann's victims told how she had to hit McCann over the head with a vodka bottle to get away after he kept them in his car.

She said: 'I went back to the car to get a big bottle of vodka. I took the bottle out of the bag and hit him on the head,' she said.

'It smashed and I ran away to some builders shouting 'help, help. He is kidnapping us. They let me into a builder's merchants and I saw the car driveway.'

McCann's other victims included a 21-year-old woman he snatched as she walked home from Pryzm nightclub in Watford in the early hours of April 21. 

On April 25, he abducted a 21-year-old woman in broad daylight in north-west London. Already inside the car was another woman, 25, who had been abducted in east London and held captive for 14 hours.

His final two victims were two 14-year-old girls who crouched in terror on the back seat of his stolen car while being chased by police.

After McCann was convicted, CPS prosecutor Tetteh Turkson said: 'His victims endured horrifying acts of sexual violence and were subjected to a truly terrifying ordeal.

'It was through persistence and bravery that some of them managed to escape.

'They showed great strength of character in recounting their stories to police and giving evidence to the court - reliving some of what must have been the darkest moments of their lives.

'It is with the power of this evidence, and the courage of the victims in giving evidence, that Joseph McCann has been convicted of his crimes.

'I hope today's verdicts provide some comfort to the victims and allows them to focus on moving on and rebuilding their lives.' 

The seven men and five women on the panel at the Old Bailey trial took the unusual step of passing a note to trial judge Mr Justice Edis asking him to place on record their sentiments.

The note said: 'The jury want to acknowledge the bravery of all the victims in this case and the courage it has taken for them to come forward.'

Two weeks of terror: How McCann drove around the country abducting and raping his victims

21-YEAR-OLD MUM ATTACKED ON APRIL 20, 2019

McCann's first victim was a mother of-one was forced into his Ford Mondeo at knifepoint as she walked home from an evening at Pryzm nightclub in Watford.

She had argued with friends and decided to walk rather than go home with them. McCann pounced on her after she dropped her handbag on the pavement.

Threatening to stab and punch her, he called her 'Hayley' and said she had done something to his sister.

She told the court: 'I just felt a knife in my neck first, and he forced me to walk over to his car and made me get in.

'He kept making me drink this Malibu. He just kept saying that I was in this firm, my whole family would be well looked after, and I would not have to do anything I did not want to because I was his girlfriend.'

They drove to her home and McCann ordered her into her bedroom as her son slept in the adjoining room, telling her she was to take part in a gypsy initiation ritual.

McCann pushed her on to the bed and said: 'It's is what they do in the traveller community.'

The woman recalled: 'That is when he started, he pulled my dress up I was not wearing any underwear. I cannot remember how long it lasted but after that I acted like everything was fine.'

After raping her on the bed McCann took her to her mother's house in the car and drove off.

25-YEAR-OLD WOMAN ATTACKED ON APRIL 24, 2019

A 25-year-old who got off the Tube at Blackhorse Road station after finishing work late at night was dragged into McCann's Ford S Max car at knifepoint.

Ramming his hand over her mouth, McCann threatened to stab her if she made a sound.

Her boyfriend heard the noise outside and called the police, but McCann was already gone.

It was the start of a 14 hour ordeal in which she would be raped repeatedly and forced to undergo depraved acts involving urine and gross sexual humiliation.

In the midst of her suffering, McCann pulled the third victim into the car to join them.

'When he said strip I realised what was happening,' the 25-year-old.

'I thought he was going to rape me and I thought I need to make sure he does not kill me.

'He kept saying he had someone in the police and that I would never escape him.

'He started saying more and more to me and the other girl that he was going to kill us.'

She seized her chance to escape when McCann told her to get him a bottle of vodka from the back of the car.

'I took the big bottle of vodka out of the bag and hit him on the head with it,' she said.

'It smashed and I ran away. I ran to some builders. I said: 'Help help he's kidnapping us.'

TWO SISTERS AGED 18 AND 21 ATTACKED ON APRIL 24, 2019

The two sisters were walking yards from their home in Edgware when McCann pulled up next to them with the 25-year-old in the car.

The younger sister ran to her mother and phoned the police as the 21-year-old was pulled into the car with the 25-year-old.

She said: 'I begged him to let me go. I tried to resist everything he told me to do and I wasn't a willing party to any of it.

'I was completely terrified this guy has just dragged me into his car threatened to kill me and raped me. I didn't know what to do. I was frozen and I was in a complete state.

'He told me he had a knife and he was gonna cut my throat and drown me.'

The two victims were made to perform sex acts on each other as McCann raped them several times.

MOTHER AND TWO CHILDREN ATTACKED ON MAY 4/5, 2019

McCann preyed on a drunken mother and her two children after meeting her at the Live Longue bar in bar in Haslingden, Greater Manchester.

He got into a taxi with her and they went to her home where they took cocaine before the woman went to bed fully clothed.

When she woke up McCann was standing next to her bedside holding her 17-year-old daughter who had already been injured in the face.

McCann tied the mother up with flex from electrical appliances and left her trussed up on the bed.

Armed with a knife from the kitchen, he pinned the daughter and 11-year-old down and forced them to perform sex acts on him.

The 17-year-old said: 'My life flashed before my eyes. I am just going to be this sex slave.'

She said she 'looked into McCann's eyes and saw 'pure evil.'

'He had a knife and ordered me to go on my bed with my mum and brother. My mum was like: 'What are you doing?' '

The teenage girl bravely jumped out of her bedroom window on 5 May and out onto the street below fracturing her right heel as she ran to get help.

McCann tried to catch her but gave up and fled on a child's bicycle.

The mother now blames herself for allowing McCann into her home and her daughter said: 'Because it happened to me and my brother it has kind of ruined the family.'

The boy has been so psychologically damaged that he is unable to speak of his ordeal.

71-YEAR-OLD WOMAN ATTACKED ON MAY 5, 2019 1.30pm.

A 71-year old pensioner had just finished loading her bags into her Fiat Punto at Morrisons in Ramsbottom when McCann pounced.

'Getting back into my car about to drive home, a man approached at the side of the car and got in,' she said.

I shouted: 'Get out! Get out!' That is when he punched me across the face. 

'He said: 'I need a lift to the motorway,' He said: 'I don't want to hurt you; I've have got a knife. I just killed someone'.

'We got into this carpark and that is when he said: 'So, we will have sex now,' or words to that effect and I said no.

McCann tried to rape or vaginally and anally before driving her to an industrial estate and forcing her to perform oral sex on him.

13-YEAR-OLD GIRL ATTACKED ON MAY 5, 2019 at 3.30pm.

The 71-year-old was driving the Fiat Punto when McCann grabbed a 13 year-old and forced her into the car.

She was with two boys and they were all made to get in, but McCann then threw the schoolboys out of the car.

He swigged from a bottle of sparkling wine as he told the girl he was in love with her.

'He was saying he was in love with me and all that, then he started sexually abusing me,' the girl said.

'When I was in the car he tried to stab me in the leg with a pen. He kept saying that apparently I am going to go out with him, he asked me if I had a boyfriend.

'I said stop saying that because it is not really true.'

When McCann pulled into Knutsford services on the M6 the pensioner ran from the car, stopping only to open the back door so the girl could escape too.

He swore at them both before driving off in the Punto.

TWO 14-YEAR-OLD GIRLS ATTACKED ON MAY 5, 2019 AT 6:30pm.

Two 14-year-olds were walking in Congleton, Cheshire when McCann appeared at the end of an alleyway saying: 'I have been looking for you all day'.

He threatened them with a machete and ordered them into the car.

One of the teenagers told the court: 'The man said: 'You will have no glasses on your face and no teeth, I will chop you up,'.

'He told us to get into the back of the car or he would kill us basically.'

They drove to a Shell Garage at the Clayton Bypass where McCann filled up the car and bought a packet of three condoms.

But as he drove away he was spotted by a police patrol car and sped off with the two terrified girls screaming in the back seat.

McCann smashed into a Mercedes as he careered the wrong way into a roundabout and then jumped out of the car. leaving the girls frightened but unharmed.

He bolted through the residential streets and was tracked on CCTV riding a child's bicycle dressed in a woman's red top and bandana he had ripped from the washing line.

Police cornered him up at tree on a farm outside of Congleton and shortly after 2am on May 6, he was arrested on suspicion of rape, kidnap and child abduction as he calmly sipped a glass of water.