R v Manish Shah

Hearing dates: 14 & 15 October 2020

Approved Judgment

Introduction

Her Majesty's Solicitor General seeks leave to refer the sentences of two unconnected prolific sexual offenders (McCann and Sinaga) to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that their multiple life sentences with minimum terms of 30 years are unduly lenient. He submits that the scale and nature of the offending calls for whole life tariffs to be attached to the life sentences. We have been unable to accept that submission but conclude that the minimum terms should be raised to 40 years. The third case before us is an application for leave to appeal by a doctor convicted of multiple sexual offences against his patients. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 15 years. We give leave to appeal but dismiss the appeal.

McCann

The Background

On 6 December 2019, following a trial at the Central Criminal Court before Edis J and a jury, Joseph McCann was convicted on each of 37 counts with which he was charged. These comprised seven offences of kidnapping, 10 of false imprisonment, seven of rape, one of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, one of attempting to kidnap, three of assault by penetration, one of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, one of rape of a child under 13, three of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, one of sexual assault and two of committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence.

On 9 December 2019 he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 30 years for all the offences save for the lesser sexual offences for which he was sentenced to concurrent determinate terms.

The Facts

McCann was released on licence from prison on 15 February 2019, having served part of a three-year sentence imposed in 2018 for an offence of burglary and other offences. He had been sentenced to an indeterminate sentence in 2008 for an offence of aggravated burglary.

Over a period of approximately two weeks in April and May 2019 he abducted seven female victims between the ages of 13 and 71 and attempted to abduct another. In addition, he held a mother and her two children captive in their own home. Seven of the victims, including two children were seriously sexually assaulted in the course of violent attacks.

Miss A, aged 21 years, was walking home alone from a nightclub in Watford in the early hours of 21 April 2019. She was abducted at knifepoint by McCann who bundled her into a car. He threatened to stab her if she tried to get away and to hit her if she did not stop crying. As he drove, McCann falsely claimed that Miss A, whom he called Hayley, had done something to his little sister. Having parked the car in a library car park he told her that some men were going to come to beat her up, but this would not happen if he told them that she had slept with him and taken cocaine. He made her expose her vagina and took photographs of her in a state of undress which he said he would send to the men. He made her take cocaine and told her he had a gun. Eventually McCann drove her back to the place of her abduction and allowed her to retrieve her bag. She showed him her driving licence to prove that she was not Hayley. This revealed her home address. McCann drove there and raped her on her own bed. He told her he had a knife in his pocket. He did not use a condom and ejaculated inside her. Finally, he let her go at just after 09.00. She had been falsely imprisoned for over five hours.

At just after midnight on 25 April 2019, Miss H was on her way home having worked late. As she neared her house, McCann grabbed her and put his hand over her mouth, saying he would stab her if she did not stop screaming. He dragged her to a car and drove off. Thereafter Miss H was captive in the car for fourteen hours. She was raped repeatedly by penetration of her mouth, vagina and anus. McCann hit her and threatened to smash a vodka bottle in her face. He made her masturbate in front of him, masturbate him and lick and digitally penetrate his anus. He digitally penetrated her vagina and anus. He made her urinate on him. He urinated into her mouth and made her drink his urine. He threatened to make her eat his faeces. He made her call him “daddy” and say that she was a child. He threatened to stab her boyfriend and her flatmate on learning of their existence. He said he wanted to be taken to her home. At one point the offender parked near a school and said that he wanted to rape a child. He raped Miss H there. He threatened to put her into a canal to wash away his DNA. He said he would never release her. During the morning of 25 April 2019, he made her get out of the car, buy food and use a cash machine for him. He kept watch on her to prevent her getting away or alerting others as to what was happening.

Just after midday on 25 April Miss S, aged 21, was walking on a street in north London with her 18-year-old sister. McCann pulled up beside them and pulled Miss S into the car. He also tried but failed to abduct her sister. Miss H was still in the car. Over the next two hours Miss S was raped and sexually assaulted. The two women were forced to engage in sexual activity with each other. McCann told Miss S that if she caused trouble, he would slit her throat and throw her in the river. He made death threats several times to both women. Despite Miss S telling him that she was a virgin as a result of her religious beliefs, he hit her until she removed her clothes. He orally raped her, digitally penetrated her anus and squeezed her breasts hard. He struck her when she said it was painful. He made her masturbate him.

The two women were able to escape when Miss H hit McCann hard over the head with a vodka bottle. They knew that he was planning to book into a hotel room for two nights where he would further assault them. He chased them as they ran away but gave up when some builders on a nearby construction site intervened.

All further attacks occurred on 5 May 2019 by which time McCann was in the Manchester area.

In the early hours of that morning McCann met Miss CH, who was very drunk, in a bar. He joined her in a taxi and went back to her home with others. By 07.00 he was alone with her and her daughter LH (aged 17) and son DH (aged 11). He tied up CH with electrical flex restraints. He then sexually assaulted her children in another room but in the presence of each other. In the case of LH, he repeatedly orally raped her and digitally penetrated both her vagina and anus, causing lacerations to her anal margin. In the case of DH, he orally raped him, forced DH to put his penis in the offender's mouth, digitally penetrate the offender's anus and lick his bottom. The incidents ended when, at about 10.20, LH jumped naked from an upstairs window, fracturing her heel as she did so, and sought help. She and her brother had by then been assaulted for over three hours. The offender escaped from the scene.

Three hours later at 13.30, Miss B, aged 71 years, was in her car in a supermarket car park having completed some shopping. McCann got into the front passenger seat, punched her hard in the face and told her to drive. He said he had a knife and had just killed someone. For the next five hours she was imprisoned in her car. During that time he orally raped her and touched her vagina, speaking of oral and anal penetration.

McCann then drove Miss B's car. At about 15.30 he pulled up beside three 13-year-old children, Miss SA and two boys. He falsely told them that he knew they had been sending threats to his sister on social media and ordered them into the car. The two boys were released nearby. With Miss B driving, the offender sat with Miss SA. He told her that she was his hostage, that he loved her and that she was now his girlfriend. He kissed her and touched her breasts under clothing. Traces of his semen were later found on her trousers. Shortly before 18.00 both Miss B and Miss SA were able to escape with the help of members of the public at a service station. By this time Miss B had been falsely imprisoned for four and a half hours and Miss SA for two and a half. The offender drove off in Miss B's car.

Just over half an hour later McCann abducted two 14-year-old girls, Miss J and Miss CA, from the street. He pulled up beside them, shouted that they had been bullying his sister and ordered them into the car, threatening that he would kill them if...