Rapist got married hours after horrific attack near Victoria Park

Guilty: Derry McCann. Photograph: Metropolitan Police

A man repeatedly assaulted and raped a stranger just hours before he was due to get married to footballer Harry Kane’s pregnant cousin.

Derry McCann, 28, of St Peters Way, Hackney, ambushed a 24-year-old woman near Victoria Park, at around 11pm on Thursday 12 January, as she was walking home from a night out with friends.

McCann grabbed the woman as she was about to exit the park and pulled her towards some benches.

According to police, he hit her in the face after she tried to “placate and reason with him”. She was then subjected to an horrific, two-hour ordeal.

When the attack was over, McCann took photos of his victim and told her she was lucky he had not filmed it. He stole her mobile phone as he made off from the scene.

Hours later, he posed for wedding snaps at the Vestry registry office in Bow with new bride Kerry Hogg, cousin of Tottenham and England striker Harry Kane, who has since given birth to his son.

In December 2006, the teenage McCann was given a near-life sentence for an eerily similar attack on a 30-year-old woman in Mile End park, but he was released early.

Questions will be asked about the decision to let him out after sentencing Judge Lindsay Burn warned at the time that there was a “very substantial risk” of him reoffending.

Commenting on McCann’s latest attack, Metropolitan Police inspector Lee Davison said: “This man is a vicious predator and an extreme danger to women. He preyed on his victim and set out to degrade her physically and psychologically.

“No one should have to endure what she was forced to go through and I want to formally pay tribute to her courage and determination. It is through her bravery we have been able to bring McCann to justice.”

McCann pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and one count of robbery when he appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Thursday 2 March.

Sentencing will take place on 28 April.