Britain’s ‘most prolific rapist’ jailed for life

A man convicted of 159 sex offences and said to be Britain’s most prolific rapist can be identified for the first time after the end of his latest trial.

Reynhard Sinaga was found guilty of luring 48 men from outside Manchester clubs to his flat, where he drugged and assaulted them – filming the attacks.

Police say they have evidence Sinaga, 36, targeted at least 190 victims.

A judge has now ruled his life sentence must include a minimum of 30 years in jail and lifted reporting restrictions.

The post-graduate student was already serving life with a minimum term of 20 years for the offences he was convicted of in two earlier trials, which took place in summer 2018 and last spring.

Across four separate trials, the Indonesian national, from Manchester, was found guilty of 136 counts of rape, eight counts of attempted rape, 14 counts of sexual assault, and one count of assault by penetration, against a total of 48 victims.

At a sentencing hearing on Monday, Judge Suzanne Goddard QC said Sinaga was an “evil serial sexual predator who preyed upon young men”.

“The true scale of your offending may never be known,” she said, adding Sinaga would “never be safe to be released”.

Sinaga would wait for men leaving nightclubs and bars before leading them to his flat in Montana House, Princess Street, often with the offer of somewhere to have a drink or call a taxi.

He drugged his victims before assaulting them while they were unconscious. When the victims woke up many of them had no memory of what had happened.

At an earlier sentencing, the judge said she was sure that he had used a form of date rape drug such as GHB.

In victim impact statements read out in court, one victim said Sinaga had “destroyed a part of my life”, while another said: “I hope he never comes out of prison and he rots in hell.”

“I have periods where I can’t get up and face the day,” another added.

Several victims said the ordeal had had a serious impact on their mental health, with some developing suicidal thoughts.

Judge Goddard said the “scale and enormity” of Sinaga’s offending meant it was “accurate” for one of his victims to have described him as a monster.

She added that Sinaga had seemed to enjoy the trial process.

Following the sentencing, Ian Rushton, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said Sinaga was “the most prolific rapist in British legal history” and possibly “in the world”.

“His extreme sense of sexual entitlement almost defies belief and he would no doubt still be adding to his staggering tally had he not been caught,” he said.

He added that he thought Sinaga took “a particular pleasure in preying on heterosexual men”.

Sinaga, who was studying for a PHD at the University of Leeds, carried out his attacks over several years.

The rapist was caught in June 2017 when one victim, who regained consciousness while being assaulted, fought Sinaga off and called the police.

When officers seized Sinaga’s phone they found he had filmed each of his attacks – amounting to hundreds of hours of footage.

The discovery led to the launch of the largest rape inquiry in British history.

Assistant Chief Constable Mabbs Hussain said the true extent of Sinaga’s offending would probably never be known.

“We suspect he’s offended over a period of 10 years,” he said. “The information and evidence we are going from is largely from trophies that he’s collected from the victims of his crimes.”

Investigators traced dozens of victims from the videos using clues found in Sinaga’s Manchester flat, such as stolen phones, ID cards and watches.

Image copyrightGREATER MANCHESTER POLICE

Sinaga’s trials took place across 18 months at Manchester Crown Court, resulting in unanimous guilty verdicts on all charges.

Detectives say they have been unable to identify 70 victims and are now appealing for anyone who believes they may been abused by Sinaga to come forward.

Sinaga’s convictions relate to crimes he committed from January 2015 to June 2017, but police believe he began offending years earlier.

The student, who denied the charges, had claimed all the sexual activity was consensual and that each man had agreed to being filmed while pretending to be asleep.