‘Unduly lenient’ sentence for serial rapist who attacked 48 men to be reviewed
Reynhard Sinaga was convicted of 159 sex offences. (CPS)
The sentence for rapist Reynhard Sinaga is to be reviewed, after it was deemed “unduly lenient”.
Sinaga was sentenced to serve a minimum of 30 years behind bars after being found guilty of 136 counts of rape, predominantly against straight men who he would target outside bars in Manchester.
On Thursday, attorney general Geoffrey Cox referred the case to the Court of Appeal, describing the sentencing as “unduly lenient”.
Attorney general Geoffrey Cox says Reynhard Sinaga sentence was ‘unduly lenient’.
Cox has said that a “whole life order” – a rare sentence that means a criminal can never be released from prison – should be considered in Sinaga’s case.
He said: “Sinaga carried out an egregious number of attacks, over a prolonged period of time causing substantial pain and psychological suffering to his victims.
“It is now for the court to decide whether to increase the sentence.”
The 36-year-old PhD student was found guilty of attacking 48 men who he would lure from outside of clubs in Manchester to his flat.
Reynhard Sinaga is believed to be Britain’s most prolific rapist
Sinaga, who prosecutors dubbed “the most prolific rapist in British legal history”, sent messages to friends referencing his use of GHB to prey on predominantly-heterosexual men.
Prosecutors say that Sinaga approached “intoxicated young men” in central Manchester and lured them back to his “strategically located” flat.
He spiked victims with sedatives to render them unconscious – then filmed himself raping them, in many cases repeatedly for hours on end.
The vast majority of victims did not know what had happened to them – and Sinaga’s crimes were only uncovered after one man woke up mid-rape and fought him off, sparking a police investigation.
Sinaga claimed his victims were enjoying acting out the ‘sexual fantasy’ of playing dead during intercourse – but his defence was rejected by juries across four trials at Manchester Crown Court.
Rape case sparks anti-LGBT+ crackdown in Indonesia.
The rapist – who is from Indonesia – had come to the UK in 2007 as an international student, and remained in academia for more than a decade, with his family paying his student fees while he targeted men in the city.
The case has sparked a crackdown on LGBT+ people in his home country.
Mohammad Idris , the mayor of Depok, West Java, responded to the news by declaring that he wants to heighten efforts to prevent the “spread of LGBT”,
The politician called for raids on houses and apartments, denouncing the entire LGBT+ community “in the name of social, moral and religious teachings”.
