TW: sexual assault and rape

Britain’s “Most Prolific” rapist was caught after twelve years in Manchester, England. Reynhard Shinaga was found guilty of 159 sexual offenses against 48 different men. Police say it might have been more victims, after finding evidence linking him to assaults on as many as 190 people. Police officials believe he began the attacks in 2005 and continued until June 2017.  

His trials began in 2018, ending on Monday with his fourth trial. He had been given a life sentence with a minimum of 30 years in jail before being considered for release. According to People, a judge in Manchester, England stated that Sinaga will “never be safe to be released.” After his father was informed of the news he stated that he believes the life sentence “fits his crimes.”

According to BBC, he would hang outside of nightclubs to find men to strike up conversations with before leading them back to his flat. He was even caught on camera while leaving flat on his way to a local nightclub. His target victims were men mostly in their late teens or early 20s, usually heterosexual. Many were too drunk to remember their conversation with Sinaga, but some remember that there was no indication of a sexual motive. Some recounted that they rarely felt threatened by Sinaga. He would offer them a place to stay for the night, as many of them were intoxicated. Once he took these men home he would lace their drinks with most likely a drug called GHB, a common date rape drug and assault them.

Most of these men would blackout until the next morning, having no recollection of what happened the night before. Although, according to Fox 2 Now Sinaga’s attacks came to light in 2017, after an 18-year-old victim woke up while being assaulted. The man managed to fight him off and was able to grab Sinaga’s phone before escaping. He took it to the police and they discovered 3.29 terabytes of graphic videos of the assaults he had recorded on his phone. Police say that some assaults lasted hours, including one taking place for eight hours. 

Many of the victims were shocked to find out what had happened to them. Many of them have come forward after his sentence was ruled out. According to The Guardian, one of the victims stated that the assault had “changed his life forever,” and he began heavily drinking and having panic attacks. He reported that he had even considered self-harm. Another man even said he would have killed himself if it weren’t for his mother, one of the only family members he could tell what happened. Around 70 victims have not yet been identified but more and more are coming forward.

A few of his friends spoke out about hearing the news. According to the South China Morning Post, one of his friends spoke out about the situation, “He never misbehaved. He never even treated his friends with disrespect. That’s why the news was such a shock to all of his friends,” the woman didn’t want to be identified continued saying, “No one knew how this sweet, quiet, kind friend of ours turned into a monster capable of committing such heinous crimes,”. According to Sinaga’s friends at the University of Indonesia, he was a flamboyant and popular student. He had no known criminal record and no one ever suspected he had been doing these horrific things for so long.