THE Probation Service has paid more than £400,000 in compensation to victims of serial rapist Joseph McCann.
The victims acted after a blunder by probation officers meant he was released from prison early, leaving him free to attack women and children across the country.
McCann, 37, was given 33 life sentences in 2019 for raping victims aged 11 to 71 in a two-week terror spree.
His 37 offences were committed just two months after he was automatically released from prison early in error.
He was caged in 2008, with a sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection, for aggravated burglary, then released on licence in 2017.
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He committed a burglary that should have triggered a prison recall, yet was given a determinate sentence for that crime which saw him released in February 2019 – halfway through a three-year stretch.
Two months later he attacked 11 people, committing multiple offences, starting with a 21-year-old woman he abducted at knifepoint.
A review of the case found there were eight occasions where “recall was considered” after his 2017 arrest for burglary, which “all represented opportunities to recall”.
The Sun on Sunday revealed in 2020 that five victims were being represented by Farleys Solicitors, with the possibility of them getting up to £100,000 each.
Now a Freedom of Information request by this newspaper has revealed the total damages paid out so far is £423,980.
The Ministry of Justice said the fees relate to “five or fewer people” but would not say how much each got.
It said the amount “excludes any interim payments on ongoing claims”.