An alleged serial sex attacker from Buckinghamshire will appear at the Old Bailey today, charged with 21 offences against eight alleged victims.

34-year-old Joseph McCann is accused of committing the 21 offences over a two-week period April 21 and May 5 across five police force areas.

During one alleged incident, McCann is said to have tied a woman up in her own home and committed sexual offences, including rape, against her 11-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter.

Two other women in their twenties were alleged to have been snatched off the street in Edgware and Chingford, London, on April 25 before being raped in a car.

A string of alleged offences are said to have occurred in Greater Manchester and Lancashire on May 5, including the rape of a 71-year-old woman and the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl.

McCann was arrested in Congleton, Cheshire, just over two weeks after allegedly having abducted a woman in her twenties in Watford before raping her in her home.

McCann faces eight counts of rape; four counts of kidnap; two counts of false imprisonment; two counts of engaging in non-penetrative sexual activity; two counts of sexual assault by penetration; one count of inciting a boy under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity; one count of engaging in non-penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged 13 to 15; and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The defendant will appear via video link from custody before senior judge Mr Justice Edis for a plea hearing at the Old Bailey.