On-The-Run Rapist In Custody

A man who violated prison release terms after serving time for the rape of a woman has been remanded into custody.

29-year-old Joseph McCabe went on the run two months after his release from jail for raping a pensioner in her home.

He was reported missing from an address in Belfast last month, but was arrested this morning after handing himself into police in L'Derry on Tuesday.

He had been jailed for 14 years in 2006 and put on the sex offenders' register after he and another man broke into the woman's home while she was in bed. McCabe then raped her.

DUP Group Leader on the Northern Ireland Policing Board, Jonathan Craig MLA welcomed today's news.

"The nature of the crimes committed by Joseph McCabe are horrendous and shocking," he said.

"He and an accomplice broke in to a woman's home and robbed her. McCabe then subjected his victim to a prolonged and vicious sexual assault which was described by his trial judge as "a violent sexual offence carried out with significant gratuitous violence".

"During his trial, McCabe claimed that he had been hearing voices inside his head since he was eight years old. It is clear that this man posed and continues to pose a significant threat to the safety and security of the community."

He continued: "The PSNI launched a major manhunt following McCabe's disappearance and I have no doubt that he took the decision to hand himself in as a result of the scale of this operation. It is vital that criminals like McCabe know that they will be hunted down by the forces of law and order."

(IT/CD)