To his friends, he was a “nice, meek, and inoffensive” student who was well-known and well-liked on the gay scene in Manchester, England. Now, Reynhard Sinaga has been unmasked as the most prolific rapist in British history—and possibly the world—after a jury found him guilty of luring 48 men from nightclubs to his flat, where he drugged and assaulted them.
The scope of Sinaga’s crimes is mind-boggling. In all, Sinaga, an Indonesian national, was convicted of 159 sex offenses, but police say they have evidence the 36-year-old targeted at least 190 victims. The BBC reports that, during four separate trials, Sinaga has been 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.
A judge has ruled that his identity can now be released following the end of his latest trial. At a sentencing hearing Monday, Judge Suzanne Goddard QC ruled that Sinaga’s life sentence must include a minimum of 30 years in prison. He was already serving life with a minimum term of 20 years following convictions in trials over the past two years.
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Goddard described Sinaga as an “evil serial sexual predator who preyed upon young men.” The judge lamented that the true scale of his crimes “may never be known” and that, in her opinion, he would “never be safe to be released.” One anonymous victim said in a statement read in court: “I hope he never comes out of prison and he rots in hell.”
Following the sentencing, Ian Rushton, a deputy from England’s Crown Prosecution Service, said Sinaga is now believed to be “the most prolific rapist in British legal history” and possibly “in the world.”
Sinaga, who was studying for a post-graduate degree at the University of Leeds, was able to carry out his attacks over the course of a decade. He came to the U.K. from Indonesia in 2007 on a student visa when he was 24. While his convictions only relate to crimes he committed from January 2015 to June 2017, police said he began offending long before then.
The Crown Prosecution Service said Sinaga appeared to take “a particular pleasure in preying on heterosexual men.” Some of his friends say they heard him describe his enjoyment of “turning” straight men, according to The Guardian, and he often boasted about his sexual activities. One friend said Sinaga was “a sweet, happy guy, always smiling and laughing,” and he attended and volunteered at a local Christian church.
One associate told The Guardian Sinaga liked to think of himself as “a bit of a Peter Pan” on account of his young appearance and his “naive” and “narcissistic” personality. He posted selfies every day—the final one being taken in June 2017, the day before he was arrested, which was complete with a filter that gave him pink ears and sunglasses.
Judge Goddard said at a hearing that his family didn’t know of “the cold, cunning, and calculated rapist that you are,” adding: “It’s almost beyond belief that someone who could profess some Christian faith could at the same time have been committing such wicked and evil crimes.”
Sinaga would wait for men to leave clubs or bars before leading them to his flat with an offer of more alcohol. He would go on to drug his victims before assaulting them while they were unconscious, leaving most of them with no memory of what had happened.
One WhatsApp exchange from 2015 was read in court.
According to The Guardian, Sinaga was talking to a friend about his flatmate moving out. His friend messaged: “You can get in lots of straight boys darling.” Sinaga responded with a photo of a passed out victim with the message: “Hahaha. You mean like this one?” The friend replied: “Fucking hell darling u get a dif straight every week.”
The rapist was caught in June 2017 when a victim, who regained consciousness during an assault, managed to fight off his attacker and call the police. Officers seized his phone and reportedly found hundreds of hours of footage of him assaulting unconscious men. Detectives say they haven’t been unable to identify 70 of the victims who were filmed and are urging anyone who believes they could have been abused to come forward.
Sinaga denied the charges, insisting the sexual activity was consensual and the men agreed to being filmed while pretending sleep.
He will be 66 years old before he can be considered for release.
