A RAPIST who subjected a 64-year-old woman to a sickening attack and is now on the run from the North has grown his hair and a beard in a effort to disguise his identity.
Joseph McCabe, pictured in this PSNI photograph, has ‘completely changed’ his image.
The warning was issued by local people in Burtonport and Dungloe where McCabe has been living for the past two weeks.
However Donegal Daily can reveal that McCabe was in Glenties on Sunday and was stopped by gardai in Letterkenny last week.
On the latter occasion gardai carried out a drugs search of the black audi car he was driving.
He was with another wanted man – 18-year-old Casey Morgan – on both occasions.
The PSNI have warned that both men should not be approached.
McCabe was released from prison in the North earlier this year after serving seven years of a 14-year sentence for rape.
He was released under license, meaning he had to register with police and sign the sex offenders register.
He was given bail in the district court in Sligo last Saturday and has been told he must stay at an address in Dungloe.
However he has been seen in the company of a number of well-known Dublin criminals.
Friends from Belfast have also travelled to Donegal to stay with him as local people form themselves into small groups to patrol the area.
“Tensions are running high because people are frightened,” said one local man who has attended several meetings on McCabe and Morgan.
“The meetings did not involve gardai; they involved ordinary people who won’t sit back and allow these thugs to terrorise our communities.”
His friend added: “People should be aware that he has changed his image from the official police picture of him.
“His hair is black and he has grown this; he has also grown a goatie-style beard.”
Under the terms of his bail McCabe is free to travel throughout Co Donegal, but must sign on at a Garda station once per day.
It’s understood the PSNI are drawing up an arrest warrant to have him extradited back to Northern Ireland.
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