Depraved sexual predator Joseph McCann lived a chaotic childhood, terrorising his neighbours with his two bothers, setting fire to cars and stealing at every opportunity.

He and his siblings were pictured leaving court with grins on their faces when they were given the first ASBOs in 1999.

Details of McCann’s long criminal history can now be reported after a jury at the Old Bailey convicted him yesterday of 37 charges against 11 women and girls aged 11 to 71.

Between April and May this year he went on a two-week cocaine and vodka fuelled rampage across the country in which his victims were kidnapped at knifepoint, held prisoner, raped and sexually abused.

He is now facing his second life sentence having been let out of prison mistakenly with no Parole Board meeting because prison staff were unaware of his indeterminate jail term.

During the 1990s McCann, his older brother Sean and younger sibling Michael tormented anyone in their path on the now demolished Beswick estate in Manchester.

One neighbour told MailOnline: ‘They were a horrible family, absolutely vile – scum of the earth.’

McCann had his fist conviction in 1998 at just 11 years old when was caught stealing.

When the three brothers were finally banned from the estate the following year, shops in the area saw their takings shoot up by £14,000 a week.

They then had to move to Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, and Wealdstone in Middlesex, where they made contact with their mum’s traveller relatives.

One neighbour said they ‘arrived overnight and brought havoc’ and said people in the area quickly got to know about the family.

He said the three brothers would regularly steal cars and set them alight in the area’s green.

McCann, son of a Scottish builder, spent the rest of his upbringing in and out of prison until he was given indeterminate sentence in in 2008 when he threatened to stab a pensioner as he raided his home.

He left his girlfriend behind as she was carrying their second child and spent the next 11 years behind bars before being released in 2017.

McCann was released on licence in 2017 and should have been put back in prison under another indeterminate sentence.

He spent 18 months inside and should have gone before a parole board before being let out again because he had been jailed for life.

But he was released without any meeting on February 15 this year because prison staff were unaware of the indeterminate sentence for public protection.

Just a few months later, he began his raping spree in which he evaded five different police forces before being caught hiding up a tree after being chased by officers.

He refused to show up to court to give evidence to the jury, who convicted him of all counts in just seven and a half minutes.

When McCann’s family moved out of Wealdstone, Middlesex for good around seven years ago, one neighbour said they ‘breathed a sigh of relief’.

They added: ‘There used to be a brick wall outside their house. But they took the bricks out to throw them at anyone.

‘If you said anything to them they would threaten to beat you up.’

The neighbour said there was ‘no way of avoiding’ the trio as they were always on the streets.

In 2016 McCann’s brother Sean committed suicide in Peterborough prison at 32 while serving a two-year sentence for assault.

His parents now live in a semi-detached bungalow on the outskirts of Aylesbury.

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