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Joseph McCann: review finds 'repeated failure' to recall offender to jail Joseph McCann: review finds 'repeated failure' to recall offender to jail
(about 2 hours later)
MoJ review says recall was considered or decision questioned on eight occasionsMoJ review says recall was considered or decision questioned on eight occasions
Probation staff repeatedly failed to recall Joseph McCann to prison despite concerns being raised by other professionals before he carried out a series of sexual assaults, an official review has found. Probation staff, police and prison authorities were warned of the risk serial rapist Joseph McCann posed eight years before he conducted a series of sexual assaults after being mistakenly released from prison, an official review has found.
McCann, 34, was given 33 life sentences and jailed for a minimum term of 30 years in December for the attacks on 11 women and children. It also found probation staff repeatedly failed to recall him after he had been freed from jail for a burglary offence, despite eight opportunities to do so and concerns raised by other professionals.
Described by his sentencing judge as a “classic psychopath”, McCann had been freed from prison after a probation service error two months before he began the string of attacks. McCann, 34, was given 33 life sentences and jailed for a minimum term of 30 years in December after being convicted of a series of rape, sexual assault and kidnapping offences against 11 women and children, aged between 11 and 71 years. He was described by the sentencing judge as a “classic psychopath”.
After a burglary armed with a knife in 2008, McCann had been given an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence, which requires the Parole Board to approve a prisoner’s release. Having been released but then convicted again for burglary and theft in 2017, McCann should have been recalled to prison under the IPP. Instead, he was mistakenly given a fresh, determinate sentence and released on licence at the midway point. The convicted burglar had been freed after a probation service error two months before he embarked on the attacks, fuelled by cocaine and vodka.
A review carried out by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and published on Thursday said: “The most significant practice failing was the repeated failure to recall Joseph McCann or to reflect critically on earlier decisions not to recall him, in the face of both court and prison staff communicating their concerns. The internal review, by the National Probation Service and made public by the Ministry of Justice, led to justice secretary Robert Buckland calling on the chief inspector of probation, Justin Russell, to conduct an independent review into the case.
“From the point where McCann was arrested for burglary in 2017 to the point of his release, there were eight occasions where recall was considered or the recall decision was questioned. These all represented opportunities to recall. The report disclosed that in 2011, when McCann was in prison for burglary, at one multi-agency public protection meeting, police had shared information dating back to 2003 that suggested McCann might pose a risk of sexual harm and exploitation to teenage girls.
“If the probation service had recalled McCann he would not have been released until the Parole Board was satisfied his release could be managed in the community.” The prison holding McCann had also intercepted two sets of letters from him with disturbing content which indicated he posed a risk of sexual harm.
The findings have prompted the department to ask the chief inspector of probation, Justin Russell, to carry out an independent review of the National Probation Service’s management of McCann and how the process of recalling offenders to prison is working. The report criticised a lack of “exploration of sexual deviance” in McCann’s case, saying: “The pertinent risk-concerns of the case were lost in the numerous handovers between offender managers, as well as failures to comprehensively consider historical intelligence.”
It concluded: “The most significant practice failing was the repeated failure to recall Joseph McCann or to reflect critically on earlier decisions not to recall him, in the face of both court and prison staff communicating their concerns.”
“From the point where McCann was arrested for burglary in 2017 to the point of his release, there were eight occasions where recall was considered or the recall decision was questioned.”
It added: “If the probation service had recalled McCann he would not have been released until the parole board was satisfied his release could be managed in the community”.
McCann had been released from prison on 15 February 2019. On 21 April, he snatched a 21-year-old woman from the street in Watford and raped her. It was the first of a series of savage sex attacks and terrifying abductions as he remained at large until 6 May.
Alan Collins, one of the lawyers representing McCann’s victims, said: “It’s horrific to think that all of this was completely avoidable. They placed McCann’s interests ahead of those of the general public.”
The report found McCann was seen by probation officers 10 times in the two months after his release from prison before he carried out the attacks.
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 his partners.
The review found he should have been recalled to prison after he committed a burglary while on licence for an earlier offence. Instead he was handed a fixed-term prison sentence and released automatically half-way through, without parole board involvement, in February last year.
He had previously been given an indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP) in 2008 after admitting breaking into and burgling the home of an 85-year-old man. The terms of that sentence meant the parole board had to decide if it was safe to release him once his tariff expired.
After his release on licence in 2017, McCann committed the second burglary and should have been recalled to prison. But instead he was remanded into custody and then given a three-year determinate sentence, which did not take into account his earlier offending.
Paying tribute to the courage of McCann’s victims in giving evidence, Buckland said: “HM Prison and Probation Service has identified unacceptable failings in this case and has rightly apologised to victims for them.”