An alleged serial rapist bound a mother with electrical flex and forced her to listen to the muffled screams of her children as he raped them both, the Old Bailey heard.

Joseph McCann woke the 17-year-old daughter and 11-year-old boy and he raped them both in the next room as the other watched, jurors heard .

Hours later he held a 71-year-old and a 13-year-old girl prisoner in the pensioner's car while he sexually assaulted them, it is alleged.

McCann, aged 34, from Harrow, west London, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of 37 charges relating to 11 alleged victims aged between 11 and 71.

On the second day of his trial, prosecutor John Price QC gave an account of the dramatic events leading to McCann's arrest on May 6.

He allegedly kidnapped a 21-year-old woman as she walked home from Pryzm nightclub in Watford in the early hours of April 21.

McCann then is suspected of travelling north where he held a family of three prisoner.

He had met the mother in a bar in Haslingden, Lancashire, in the early hours of Sunday, May 5 and took advantage of her drunken state to take her home, jurors heard.

When they arrived at her house, he allegedly tied [her] to her bed using electrical wiring.

McCann woke the two children and raped them both in the next room, jurors heard.

(Image: Stoke Sentinel)

Jurors heard McCann might argue the sexual acts were consensual, or deny they ever took place.

John Price, QC, prosecuting, said: "Given that the mother still had the electrical flex restraints wrapped around her wrist which she says he had applied to her, when she was first seen by her neighbour having escaped from her house it may further suggest that McCann had a lawful excuse for applying that electrical restraint to her, it may further be said that Mr McCann was frightened of her."

The court heard the woman was 'very drunk' and McCann 'exploited her vulnerability' by going with her to her house in the taxi.

"There were various comings and goings during the night at the house, of friends and family, until there came a time when apart from the woman and her two children, he was the only person there," Mr Price said.

"It was then that he struck."

McCann demanded a tub of butter was brought upstairs to facilitate what he allegedly 'intended to do in that bedroom'.

While the 11-year-old boy cut his mother free from the wires binding her to the bed, the daughter leapt naked from the first floor fracturing her right heel as she ran before calling the police.

Her flight was captured on local CCTV and played to the jury today in a pixelated form.

She told them crying hysterically and gasping in pain: "I need the police. I just jumped out the window. He has got a knife. He cut me. I really hurt my foot.

"Please come before he hurts my brother and my mother."

Meanwhile, McCann allegedly left by the front door and escaped on a child's bicycle towards a bus stop.

There he spoke to a commuter, saying: "What time is the bus? I don't like catching the bus having been up all night."

(Image: Cheshire Police)

From that area he moved on to another in Greater Manchester, five miles away, where a 71-year-old was loading her shopping into the boot of her Fiat Punto at lunchtime the following day.

"He opened the door and got into the front passenger seat. She told him to get out," Mr Price said.

"In response he punched her hard in the face and ordered her to drive.

"She was to be detained in her own car during the following five hours or so. Amidst other gross sexual indignity and violence inflicted upon her, she was orally raped by this man."

A major investigation was sparked spanning from London to the North West after a string of women and children were abducted and sexually assaulted over three days in the spring, jurors heard.

McCaan attempted to evade police by stealing a mountain bike and climbing up a tree in Congleton, Cheshire.

After being arrested McCann allegedly told a police officer: "If you had caught me for the first two, the rest of this wouldn't have happened."

The court heard the net began to close on the final day of his spree after two 14-year-old girls were allegedly coerced into a Fiat car driven by the defendant the day before.

At 6.44pm he was captured on CCTV buying condoms at a Shell Petrol station on the Clayton Bypass in Congleton.

Meanwhile, the girls were in the Fiat, which the defendant had allegedly taken from a 71-year-old woman who had been kidnapped and raped earlier that day.

Mr Price told jurors: "By that time there was intense police activity in the area, bearing in mind the 999 calls that had been received during that day.

"Reports of children being taken from the street, the police having the description of (the 71-year-old's) car. They were looking for that car."

At 6.49pm PC Michael Jennings spotted the Fiat at a roundabout at the bypass and set off in pursuit, recording it on his dashcam.

The Fiat crashed into a Mercedes car and the suspect fled on foot, leaving the two girls behind, jurors heard.

(Image: PA)

Mr Price said: "They were shocked, very frightened and distressed but otherwise mercifully unharmed."

McCann ran past a man in his front garden who asked if he was alright.

The defendant allegedly replied: "Shut the f*** up" before pedalling off on a mountain bike.

At about 8.15pm the defendant reportedly made two phone calls in a restaurant in Scholar Green.

He was overheard asking to speak to "Charlene" before ordering a taxi, jurors heard.

The bicycle was abandoned outside the restaurant as the defendant was picked up by the taxi, jurors were told.

Police had set up roadblocks and the taxi was stopped on the A34 south of Congleton at 8.40pm.

Mr Price said that by then police had a name and description of the suspect and knew he had a distinctive tattoo on his stomach.

PC David Reed spoke to the taxi passenger, who was holding a pint glass and claimed he was returning home after drinking in pubs, the court heard.

When the officer asked to see his stomach, the passenger replied: "No, you're not f****** seeing" before jumping out of the taxi and running into fields saying: "f*** you", jurors were told.

A police cordon was placed around the field and the force helicopter was deployed.

Mr Price said: "Police found him. He had climbed a tree. A stand-off commenced. He was eventually brought down and at 2.36am on Monday, May 6. He was arrested for offences of rape and abduction."

Police body-worn video captured the moment McCann was arrested, jurors were told.

In response to being cautioned, McCann said: "Possible abduction", the court heard.

When it was explained it was "because of the kids in the car", he told officers: "I did not abduct them. Those two girls wanted a lift", the court heard.

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McCann allegedly told the officer: "If you had caught me for the first two, the rest of this wouldn't have happened."

Mr Price told jurors the evidence against the defendant was "overwhelming".

He said it may be suggested on the defendant's behalf that the women he was accused of assaulting had consensual sex with him.

Not guilty pleas have been entered on all the charges relating to the 11 women and children.

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McCann, who is not in the dock, is charged with 10 counts of false imprisonment, seven counts of rape, one count of rape of a child, two counts of causing or inciting a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, seven counts of kidnap, one count of attempted kidnap, three counts of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, three counts of assault by penetration, one count of sexual assault and two counts of committing a sexual offence with intent.

The trial continues.

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