Serial rape accused threatened to slit my throat, mother tells court

Alleged serial rapist Joseph McCann, 34, is accused of tricking his way into the woman's Greater Manchester home after a night out, a court has heard.

The defendant allegedly tied her up with electrical cable and molested her 17-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son.

After they escaped, she tried to comfort her son, saying: "It's OK, son. We are alive," jurors heard.

She said: "I have come back in a taxi where this fella has said 'I will come with you to make sure you get home OK'."

McCann, 34, is accused of then producing a knife as he ordered the woman to lie down in her son's bedroom, forcing the children into another bedroom.

As he tied her up, he allegedly told her: "Don't look at me or I will slit your throat."

The woman went on: "He tied my legs together and then he turned me back over again but he kept coming in saying 'you watch, or say anything I will slit your throat.

"I said 'are you going to kill us all' and he said 'shut up'.

"I could just hear him in my bedroom with (the children) because I was face down I could only hear him say '(boy's name) lie down on the floor, don't look at me'.

"I think I heard (the girl) say, 'no, no, I don't want to do that'. I thought, my God.

"It was like I was in and out of consciousness. I don't know if it was fright.

"I was trying to get out but I thought if he sees me he would kill me. He had my children in the bedroom."

She said McCann checked on her three or four times.

The woman added: "He said if I moved my eyes or anything he would slit my throat and I believed him. I did not even want to move my eyeballs."

The woman told officers she heard her daughter taking a shower and ask, "is that OK now".

She described how the girl then jumped out of a bedroom window to escape.

The mother said: "He (the attacker) must have run down the stairs to go get to her and my son, God bless him, he must have run downstairs, put the safety catches on.

"He said 'mum, mum, we are safe. (My sister) saved us'.

The woman said her son then ran downstairs, grabbed their attacker's discarded knife and used it to cut her free, saying: "Mummy, let's go out the back door."

The witness continued: "I said 'hold onto me'. I said 'run like you never ran before and you get out'."

Jurors heard the boy told his mother details of sexual abuse he had suffered after she asked him what had happened.

She said: "I said 'it's OK, son'. I just wanted him to be calm for a bit. I said, 'we are alive'."

The woman said she was "petrified" and felt like she would pass out as police were alerted.

She described her attacker as "calm and calculated", saying he appeared to be "enjoying it".

He allegedly told her he was from Northern Ireland and had a son.

McCann, from Harrow, west London, denies 37 charges relating to 11 women and children, including rape, kidnap and false imprisonment.