This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The alleged serial rapist Joseph McCann has again refused to appear in court to enter his pleas over 35 charges relating to attacks against 11 victims.

The 34-year-old is accused of attacking victims aged between 11 and 71 across five police force areas over a two-week period between 20 April and 5 May.

During one alleged incident, McCann is said to have tied a woman up in her own home and committed sexual offences, including rape, against her 17-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son.

He was arrested near Congleton in Cheshire just over two weeks after he is alleged to have abducted a woman in her 20s in Watford before raping her in her home.

Two other women, also in their 20s, were allegedly separately snatched off the street in Chingford and Edgware, London, on 25 April before being raped in a car.

A string of other alleged offences are said to have occurred in Lancashire and Greater Manchester on 5 May, including the rape of a 71-year-old woman and the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl.

McCann, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, refused to attend his plea hearing at the Old Bailey by video link from Belmarsh prison on Friday.

He previously refused to attend a similar hearing on 23 May.

The senior judge, Mr Justice Edis, had previously set a provisional six-week trial at the Old Bailey to start on 11 November. Edis said he would proceed on the basis that there would be a trial on all counts.

McCann faces 10 counts of false imprisonment, seven counts of rape, one count of rape of a child and three counts of causing or inciting a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.

He is further charged with seven counts of kidnap, one count of attempted kidnap, two counts of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, three counts of assault by penetration and one count of sexual assault.