Violent rapist Joseph McCabe jailed for four months after breaking release terms AGAIN

Joseph McCabe admitted a single count of breaching the requirements of the sex offenders’ register on April 28 this year by failing to notify the police of his new address.

Prosecuting counsel Nicola Auret said the 39-year-old left Edward Street hostel in Portadown, where he had been staying after being released from jail, and did not tell the police where he would be living.

Judge Patrick Lynch KC told McCabe, who appeared at Craigavon Crown Court via video-link, that his record of multiple breaches was an aggravating factor in the case.

He ordered that the four-month sentence to begin in October next year when the defendant’s suspended prison licence will have expired.

In February 2005, McCabe and another man broke into the home of a 64-year-old grandmother.

McCabe then subjected her to what a judge described as a “violent sexual offence carried out with significant gratuitous violence”.

Imposing a 14-year sentence, he told a hearing that the victim had been subjected to a “terrifying prolonged ordeal” in her home.

McCabe was freed in 2013 after serving half his sentence, but he sparked an island-wide manhunt after he went on the run following a breach of the terms of his release. He later handed himself in.

The rapist has breached his licence and the requirements of the sex offenders’ register more than half a dozen times, including when he went on a pre-Christmas crime spree, stealing hundreds of pounds worth of turkeys.