‘His victims were young men’ — PhD student bags life imprisonment for 136 counts of rape

Reynard Sinaga, a PhD student of Leeds University, has been sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison for sexually assaulting “several men”.

According to BBC, the Indonesian national was convicted at Manchester crown court on Monday, after he was found guilty of 136 counts of rape, 14 counts of sexual assault, eight counts of attempted rape, and one count of assault by penetration, against a total of 48 victims.

The news outlet quoted police sources as saying that the 36-year-old student has sexually assaulted over 190 victims around where he lives in Manchester.

During the hearing, Suzanne Goddard, the presiding judge, said Sinaga was “an evil serial sexual predator who has preyed upon young men who wanted nothing more than a good night out with their friends”.

“In my judgment you are a highly dangerous, cunning and deceitful individual who will never be safe to be released.”

Sinaga began his PhD journey at the university in 2012, where he applied for human geography. His hopes of graduating soon, however, hit the rock after several struggles with his programme.

He was said to have submitted his PhD thesis titled “Sexuality and everyday trans-nationalism among South Asian gay and bisexual men in Manchester,” in 2016 but was rejected.

The project supervisors had asked him to rework the thesis.

In spite of his struggles, Sinaga stayed put in Manchester where he carried out most of his atrocities.

During his trial, he was said to have admitted targeting students with his youngest and oldest victims being 17 and 36 years of age respectively.

Sinaga usually carry out his act on men departing clubs and bars for their homes.

He would drugged his victims and lead them to his flat in Princess Street, Manchester and consequently assault them while videoing the act.

The post-graduate student had earlier pleaded not guilty to the charges, noting such acts were usually carried out with the consent of his victims.

This prompted the jury to watch some of the videos, which however, showed he was attacking his victims.

Ian Rushton, a member of the crown prosecution service team, described Sinaga as “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.

It was gathered that Sinaga’s appalling activities were brought to light in 2017, after an 18-year-old victim woke up in the morning while being assaulted.

The victim managed to fight him off, and crucially was able to grab Sinaga’s phone before leaving the apartment to report to the police.

The following investigation would become the largest rape inquiry in British history.