How Britain's most prolific rapist - who attacked 195 men - was finally snared: Gay student, 36, is jailed for 60 years after teenager, 18, woke to find him assaulting him and gave police the chilling phone footage
- Reynhard Sinaga is thought to have carried out sex attacks on at least 195 men
- He lured men to his flat before drugging them and rendering them unconscious
- Sinaga, 36, would then rape or sexually assault his victims while filming himself
- One victim fought him off before going to police and handing in Sinaga's phone
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Britain's most prolific serial rapist was today jailed for life after drugging at least 48 men and filming himself sexually violating them while they were unconscious in his flat.
Gay Christian student Reynhard Sinaga was finally caught when one of the men in Manchester, an 18-year-old, regained consciousness on the bathroom floor and fought him off before he went to the police and crucially handed in Sinaga's phone.
Initially the victim was mistakenly arrested for assault, but officers searched Sinaga's flat and found a hard drive containing a chilling online library of videos of the rapes plus still images of the victims as they lay naked and unconscious on his floor.
They also discovered Sinaga, 46, had looked victims up on Facebook and stored their details. He further kept victims' belongings as sick souvenirs of the encounters, including a phone, watch driving licence and a restaurant Tastecard.
Police have linked Sinaga to 195 potential victims - 70 of whom they have not yet been able to identify. He went out in the early hours of the morning, hunting for lone, drunk young men around nightclubs near his flat in Manchester city centre.
The slightly-built Indonesian student posed as a Good Samaritan who offered them a floor to sleep on or promised them more drink, Manchester Crown Court heard.
His victims - who were mainly heterosexual - had little or no memory of the hours that followed as Sinaga filmed the assaults on his mobile phone, and they later left the apartment unaware they had been violated.
Sinaga - who was condemned for showing no remorse - was born into a relatively wealthy family in Indonesia and arrived in the UK on a student visa in 2007 financed by his parents, before studying at Manchester and Leeds universities.
He was convicted of 159 offences committed from January 2015 to May 2017 across four separate trials, with the case split up due to the number of victims involved.
Police have linked Reynhard Sinaga to more than 190 potential victims in total - 70 of whom they have not yet been able to identify
Sinaga hunted for drunk young men around nightclubs near his flat in Manchester (above)
Police inquiries began after the 18-year old man who had been to Factory club became separated from his friends and was approached by Sinaga outside.
In a 999 call, the victim said: 'I tried to push him away. I've got blood on me because I tried to hit him to get away from me.
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'He's trapped me in his house for most of the night. I've had to, I know it's violent, but I've had to hit him a few time just to, to stop him from attacking me, been on top me.
'I've had to. I've got blood on my hand if you want to see? Cut, I think he might be busted so, if you have to you might have to phone an ambulance 'cause I've, I've had to hit him a few times to get him away from me.'
Iain Simpkin, prosecuting, said: 'The defendant suggested he should try to contact his friends from the nearby flat. The complainant agreed but can recall nothing else at all, until he woke up several hours later.
'As he awoke he was lying face down with his jeans and boxer shorts around his knees with the naked defendant in the act of sexually attacking him. The complainant pushed Sinaga off him and once the defendant realised he was conscious he started to scream words like, 'intruder' and, 'help'.
'What followed next was a fight with the defendant repeatedly biting the complainant and the complainant striking the defendant several times. Ultimately, the complainant managed to escape from the flat and once outside contacted the Police.
'Sinaga was stretchered out of his flat by the paramedics, and at this stage, the complainant was initially arrested and interviewed for assault. But it soon became clear to the police that it was he who was the complainant and in due course Sinaga was arrested.
'All of the complainants were either inside or near to one of the night spots and all have suffered varying degrees of memory loss.
'Almost none of the men who the police had tracked were even aware they had been involved in a sexual interaction with the defendant.'
Sinaga claimed many of the victims appeared to be asleep as they 'were playing dead' as he has sex with them.
Today, Sinaga was jailed for 60 years and must serve a minimum of 30 years in custody before he can be considered for parole.
Judge Suzanne Goddard QC told the court his total number of potential victims was 195.
Sentencing, she told Sinaga: 'You are an evil serial sexual predator who has preyed upon young men who came into the city centre wanting nothing more than a good night-out with their friends.
'One of your victims described you as a monster. The scale and enormity of your offending confirms this as an accurate description.'
The judge continued: 'Rarely, if ever, have the courts seen such a campaign of rape as this, covering so many victims over a prolonged period.'
She said the true scale of Sinaga's offending may never be known but that police appeared to have established 195 men were filmed by the defendant while unconscious.
Judge Goddard went on: 'It is ironic that were it not for the films that you took of your evil crimes it seems that most of these offences would not have even been discovered, let alone prosecuted.
'Your actions show you as a dangerous individual with no sense of reality.
'In my judgment you are a highly dangerous, cunning and deceitful individual who will never be safe to be released. That is for the Parole Board.'
Sinaga had shown 'not a jot of remorse', she continued, and noted at times he appeared to be 'actually enjoying the trial process'.
Details of the case - the UK's largest ever rape prosecution - can be made public today after reporting restrictions were lifted following the end of four trials.
The Crown Prosecution Service was forced to split the prosecution into four separate trials of 10 to 13 victims such were the numbers involved in the case.
Sinaga claimed the men consented to being recorded playing a sex game in which they pretended to be dead to fulfil his fantasies - a defence labelled 'preposterous' by prosecutor Iain Simkin as jurors saw footage of some victims snoring.
He was found guilty of a total of 159 offences committed between January 2015 and May 2017 - 136 counts of rape, 13 counts of sexual assault, eight counts of attempted rape and two counts of assault by penetration.
Many of the complainants had earlier been to the city centre nightclubs Factory and Fifth Avenue.
Spirit bottles at Sinaga's flat are pictured. He is thought to have drugged the men when giving them a drink from his selection of alcohol
A map of Manchester city centre shows where Sinaga's flat (in red) is located along with the nightclubs Factory and Fifth Avenue, which many of the complainants had earlier been to
A large part of Sinaga's offending took place in the bedroom but some did take place in the living room. The final victim was raped in the bathroom before he woke up during the ordeal
Sinaga's apartment, situated next to Factory in Princess Street, provided a perfect vantage point from which to identify his targets.
It is thought he laced alcoholic drinks with a drug such as GHB, also known as liquid ecstasy.
Overdoses of the odourless, colourless substance can kill, the court heard, but it was a risk that Sinaga was prepared to take with complete strangers to satisfy his perverted desires.
Sinaga kept 'trophies' of his crimes, such as watches and wallets.
He also downloaded social media pages from some of some of his victims, gleaned from personal identification they were carrying, and took still photographs of many of them while they were naked or semi-naked.
The court heard that none of the victims - many in their late teens or early 20s - wanted to know details of what had happened to them when traced by police and some have chosen not to tell their family or close friends of the trauma.
Sinaga tested negative for HIV after he was arrested.
Jurors had to watch the mobile phone footage as Sinaga persisted with his defence and all were later uniquely offered counselling.
Last June, Sinaga was jailed for life with a minimum of 20 years for the convictions from his first two trials.
The living room at the home of Sinaga, who has been jailed at Manchester Crown Court for life
Reporting restrictions were put in place to avoid prejudice to subsequent trials and to avoid the possibility of potential victims and witnesses being deterred from giving evidence or coming forward.
A number of personal statements were read out in court from victims of offences which Sinaga was convicted of in the third and fourth trials.
One said: 'That night was just like any night out with my mates. What I didn't know was that there was a monster lurking in the background waiting to take advantage of my drunken state.
'I want Sinaga to acknowledge what he has done to me and show some remorse but I doubt that will ever happen.'
Another victim said: 'I genuinely thought he had helped me. How wrong could I be?
'The day I gave evidence was the hardest day of my life. I have a message to you, Sinaga. I am not going to let your ruin my life. I am going to fulfil my career plans and live a happy, content life.'
Prosecutor Iain Simkin told the court today that a common feature of many of the victims was the defendant's search for their social media details and that he was 'collating or cataloguing his victims in some way'.
The collection 'greatly assisted' the police in identifying the victims, he said.
He added that Sinaga bragged about one of his victims to a friend in a phone conversation and paraphrased the Little Mix song Black Magic, commenting: 'Take a sip of my secret potion, I'll make you fall in love.'
Sinaga (left) claimed the men consented to being recorded playing a sex game in which they pretended to be dead to fulfil his fantasies at his flat (right, where blood was seen on the door)
Sinaga (centre) is pictured in a sketch of him appearing at Manchester Crown Court today
Richard Littler QC, defending Sinaga, submitted that the legal authorities did not support the passing of a whole life sentence in his client's case.
He said this was not a mandatory life sentence case and that the Court of Appeal has never imposed a whole life order for a discretionary life sentence and, to date, whole life terms had not been passed in non-homicide cases.
Mr Littler said: 'This was a carefully executed sex crime by a defendant where the victims were targeted, tricked, drugged and all, it would appear, oblivious to the sex acts inside the flat.
'This could be accurately described as an evil crime but in fact it cannot accurately be described as a violent crime.'
Mr Littler said 36-year-old Sinaga would no longer have the ability to commit such age-specific offences when released.
Ian Rushton, North West Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor, said: 'Reynhard Sinaga is the most prolific rapist in British legal history.
'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.
'Sinaga's unthreatening demeanour duped these young men - many of whom thanked him for his kindness in offering them a place to stay - into thinking this monster was a Good Samaritan.
'But once back at his flat he used victims as objects purely for his own gratification - then appears to have derived further twisted pleasure from re-watching his films in court and putting victims through the trauma of giving evidence.'
| Number of victims | Rape | Attempt Rape | Assault by Penetration | Sexual Assault | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trial 1 | 12 | 31 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 40 |
| Trial 2 | 13 | 49 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 55 |
| Trial 3 | 10 | 26 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 32 |
| Trial 4 | 13 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 32 |
| TOTAL | 48 | 136 | 8 | 2 | 13 | 159 |
Reacting to Sinaga's sentencing, Home Secretary Priti Patel has asked for a review of whether controls of drugs such as GHB, which is currently class C, were 'tough enough'.
Home Secretary calls for urgent review into GHB controls
Home Secretary Priti Patel (right) has called for an urgent review into whether more stringent controls are needed for date rape drugs such as GHB.
The Conservative minister urged the independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to expedite a review into whether current controls are tough enough.
Her intervention comes following the sentencing of serial rapist Reynhard Sinaga to at least 30 years in jail after he was convicted of offences against 48 men.
It is thought he laced alcoholic drinks with a drug such as Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), also known as liquid ecstasy.
The powerful depressant is a class C drug that is unlawful to possess for yourself or supply - except under a Home Office licence.
Because of its potency, it has become a tool to spike drinks and has been linked to rapes and other sexual assaults.
Ms Patel said: 'Sinaga committed truly sickening crimes and it is right that he has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
'I extend my heartfelt sympathy to his victims and my gratitude to the police and prosecutors who worked on this case and put him behind bars.
'I'm deeply concerned by the use of illegal drugs like GHB to perpetrate these crimes and have asked the independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to expedite a review looking at whether our controls for these drugs are tough enough.'
GHB is used recreationally to reduce inhibitions, produce feelings of euphoria and increase the intensity of sex.
But the risks are high, because the difference between the amount that will achieve the desired effects and overdosing is very small.
This can lead to unconsciousness, coma and death.
It does not always have a noticeable taste or smell, but can taste salty, and is particularly dangerous when mixed with alcohol or other depressants and sedatives.
She said: 'Sinaga committed truly sickening crimes and it is right that he has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
'I extend my heartfelt sympathy to his victims and my gratitude to the police and prosecutors who worked on this case and put him behind bars.
'I'm deeply concerned by the use of illegal drugs like GHB to perpetrate these crimes and have asked the independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to expedite a review looking at whether our controls for these drugs are tough enough.'
Councillor Nigel Murphy, Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council, said: 'We pay tribute to the courage of those who have testified in these cases and the painstaking work of Greater Manchester Police in bringing this monster to justice.
'Support is available for anyone who is affected by the issues raised in this case.
'While it's deeply shocking that these crimes happened in our city, their long shadow should not distort perceptions of Manchester.
'Tens of thousands of people safely enjoy the city's famous nightlife every week.
'These were the actions of one depraved predator acting in isolation - they do not reflect or represent any gender, race, religion, sexuality or community.'
Detectives from Greater Manchester Police say they are keen to speak to about 70 of the potential victims who have not yet been identified from Sinaga's videos to ensure they have any support needed.
Earlier, Judge Goddard said police had established there are 195 different males who appear to be unconscious while Sinaga sexually assaulted them on film.
Bev Hughes, Greater Manchester's Deputy Mayor for Policing, Crime and Criminal Justice, said: 'The police, St Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Survivors Manchester, Victim Support, the National Probation Service and other partner agencies have worked together to provide victims and survivors with the best possible support throughout the trials.
'I also want to echo GMP's appeal for further victims of Sinaga to come forward, so we can ensure they get the support they need.
'I also want to urge anyone who has been a victim of any rape or sexual assault to come forward and report it to police, confident that they will receive the help and support they need.
'Greater Manchester is a resilient place. We have undergone traumas in the past and, together, come through them. Sinaga is an appalling individual, who acted alone and is now off our streets.
The front door and the hallway at the home of Sinaga, who has been jailed for life, is pictured
Jurors had to watch the mobile phone footage as Sinaga persisted with his defence and all were later uniquely offered counselling
'He is in no way representative of our city-region and people should not be fearful of enjoying all that Manchester city centre has to offer.'
Specialist police officers and victim support services are on standby to hear from anyone who believes Sinaga may have approached them on a night out.
Greater Manchester Police established there may be at least 190 potential victims of Sinaga, but of that figure they were unable to identify 70 of those individuals.
And it is suspected the serial rapist may have committed offences elsewhere in the city as images from some video clips recovered from his phone did not match the Manchester city centre address where he lived when he was arrested.
Assistant Chief Constable Mabs Hussain said: 'My first appeal would be to anybody who may think they have had contact with Reynhard Sinaga, the circumstances as reported have brought back some memories and they suspect they have been on a night out and met somebody like Reynhard Sinaga to contact the police.
'We have specialist officers waiting, we have a helpline where the numbers are available and we are working with specialist victim support services including St Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Survivors Manchester and Victims' Services.
'At the forefront of this investigation and our primary objective throughout has been to provide the support to the victims and I would encourage them to come forward. We have the specialist services to provide that support.'
He went on: 'We believe Reynhard Sinaga is the UK's most prolific rapist and the reason I say that is because on the information and evidence we suspect there are in total 190 victims approximately who have been involved.
'We can't give you a definitive figure for obvious reasons. Forty-eight of them have supported a criminal prosecution.
'Of that 190 there are approximately 70 that we are still yet to identify and the reason we have still yet to identify them is despite our best efforts, and the investigation team working tirelessly to piece together the information, we have been unable to identify who each individual is to speak to them. There is still some work for us to do.'
He said officers had undertaken a 'very very difficult' investigation with almost three terabytes of data pored over - the equivalent of watching 1,500 DVD films.
Mr Hussain explained: 'One of my officers described it as like putting together a jigsaw without the picture because it was not apparent which parts were from which offence.
'Each visit to each of these victims has had to be carefully and meticulously planned, and their welfare and wellbeing was at the forefront of our mind in dealing with the victims.'
The Factory club in Manchester where Sinaga watched and picked up men that he later raped
Fifth nightclub in Manchester where Sinaga watched and picked up men that he later raped
He said Sinaga was a 'depraved sexual predator' who had taken advantage of trusting young men, but he added: 'I think we need to concentrate less on Reynhard Sinaga as an individual and focus much more on each individual victim who has either supported the prosecution or provided evidence and information.
'I cannot begin to imagine what they have had to endure, what they have had to go through and what they are still living with today.'
In a statement, the Diocese of Manchester said: 'Reynhard Sinaga is guilty of the most appalling crimes. We utterly condemn his actions and our thoughts and prayers today go out to his victims.
'Clergy, and others in our churches who work with those affected by abuse, are ready to offer support to any affected by these horrific revelations.
'We can confirm that Reynhard Sinaga did worship occasionally at a city centre church and it appears that nobody who came into contact with him had any inkling of his crimes.'
'Cunning rapist' worked on thesis about gay and bisexual men in Manchester
Churchgoer Reynhard Sinaga lived in Manchester city centre for more than a decade while studying various university courses.
A gay man who looks younger than his age of 36, he chose to live close to the gay village and the Canal Street area where attitudes to homosexuality were very different than in his home nation of Indonesia.
Sinaga is said to have had a small, close-knit group of friends who believed him to be friendly and good-natured.
Specialist police officers and victim support services are on standby to hear from anyone who believes Sinaga (pictured) may have approached them on a night out
Born in the Jambi province of Indonesia into a relatively wealthy family, Sinaga arrived in the UK on a student visa in 2007 financed by his parents and remained in the country on those terms for the next 10 years.
Sinaga graduated from the University of Manchester in 2009 with an MSc degree in Planning and again in 2011 with an MA degree in Sociology.
No concerns of a sexual nature, or of any other matters, were ever raised with the university, confirmed officials.
From 2012 he commuted monthly to the University of Leeds as part of his studies for a PhD.
Sinaga attended regular supervision meetings to help with his thesis entitled 'Sexuality and everyday transnationalism. South Asian gay and bisexual men in Manchester'.
The university said he did not appear to spend much time in the city, other than for the monthly supervision sessions, and did not take an active part in research groups or societies.
In June 2017 he was suspended immediately after his arrest and his student status was officially rescinded following conviction.
Greater Manchester Police said there is no indication that his research was used as a basis for his crimes.
During a previous sentencing hearing the court received references from Sinaga's mother and sister but Judge Suzanne Goddard QC said both knew nothing of 'the cold, cunning and calculated rapist'.
A character testament was also received from St Chrysostom's Church, in Victoria Park, Manchester - an Anglican church of the Catholic tradition - where Sinaga had attended.
The judge said: 'It is almost beyond belief that someone who could profess some Christian faith could at the same time have been committing such wicked and evil crimes.'
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