East London Rapist Once Sentenced To Life In Prison Assaults Second Woman On His Wedding Day

An ex-con once accused of a violent rape in London nine years ago reportedly struck again on the same day that he tied the knot with his girlfriend.

Police arrested Derry McCann, 28, from Hackey, East London on charges of rape and robbery just hours after he walked down the aisle with his publicly unnamed partner on January 19, The Sun reports.

Just six days previous, McCann was said to have allegedly confronted a woman in nearby Victoria Park as she made her way home from a night out with friends, where he then proceeded to rob the victim. After handing over her money, McCann then grabbed the woman and supposedly dragged her into a bushel of shrubbery to assault her sexually.

Man from Hackney charged with Victoria Park rape https://t.co/y0g4dxMStm #London pic.twitter.com/oxechrGHyl

— London News (@DaiIyLONDON) January 20, 2017

Later that same day, McCann wed his beloved at The Vestry in Bromley, another district in East London, and proudly took several images with his new wife during the ceremony. Following the nuptials, the newlywed husband found time to upload the collective of visual memories to his Facebook profile, including one that displays him sharing a loving peck with his blushing bride.

During initial proceedings for the incident at Thames Magistrates’ Court on January 20, Derry McCann was formerly charged with four counts of rape and an additional count of robbery. He had yet to enter a plea at the time of the initial Sun report, but an earlier mention from another publication could loan weight as to why he hasn’t done so.

As noted in a Daily Mail post from December 2006, an individual by the name of Derry McCann was once sentenced to life in prison for the rape and assault of a 30-year-old trainee solicitor. Then 17, McCann’s modus operandi was incredibly similar to that of the most recent incident: as the victim made her way through an East London park, the defendant purportedly approached her; this time, with a reported accomplice, demanded money, then carried her off to a hidden area, a nearby pond, where she was brutally raped.

“I know there was no way I could, as much as I wish I could, forget [that] it happened,” the victim, whose identity was never revealed, said during the trial at London Crowd Court, adding that McCann violated her for an excruciating 40 minutes before finally letting her go.

Convicted of six counts of rape, robbery, and other offenses thanks to DNA evidence and from being monitored through a court-ordered ankle bracelet that he was forced to wear following another arrest, McCann was facing life imprisonment for the supposed crime, but was ultimately recommended by prosecutors to serve just nine years.

During closing arguments, Judge Lindsay Burn foreshadowed that the lenient sentence could allow McCann to strike again in the future.

“In my judgment, there’s a very substantial risk that you will commit further serious offence,” she expressed, before adding that his conduct could rightfully “cause serious harm to your [current] victim or [your future] victims.”

No mugshots from either arrest are accessible online, but the locations of both incidents, as well as the span of time between both rapes, seem to imply that both assaults were carried out by the same Derry McCann. The identity of McCann’s wife has not been made public, and Facebook pages belonging to Derry have seemingly been removed from the site. The most recent case has been transferred to Snaresbrook Crown Court, where a second hearing will be held in early February.

Whereas most might wonder how this man was granted mercy following the first rape, at least one person involved in the case, Detective Sergeant Paul Lofts, feels that McCann was completely undeserving of such leniency.

“He put [a] woman through a life-changing trauma that will haunt her for the rest of her life,” Lofts shared. “Derry McCann deserves to be behind bars.”

[Featured Image by Vadven/iStock]