This Student Drugged 200 Men: Catching Reynhard Sinaga
Hello? I think someone Some guy has tried to rape me. He took me to his house. I didn’t want to. He He forced me to go to his house. And then he raped me. I met him last night, I think. I I was drinking near him. He slipped me something, right? I don’t know. And now, in the morning, he’s like on top of me. >> [music] >> So, if you can just start from the beginning, what happened? I remember the first time I walked into
the courtroom for the case, and I saw Sinaga sat between two security officers in the dock, and I thought, that can’t be him. I must be in the wrong trial. I just couldn’t stop looking at him. We were notified in this [music] office uh in June 2017 that Sinaga had been arrested, um >> [music] >> and really the the case began to build from that moment.
He looked studious. [music] He looked clever. Most of all, really, he looked harmless, completely harmless. And I guess that’s the thing that makes him most [music] dangerous. So, for a long time, when And sat in this trial hearing what Sinaga had done. You couldn’t help but looking [music] at him in the dock and thinking was this really all you? Was this all your doing? Are you the right man? It was just incredible.
Literally incredible. Personally speaking, I think that we [music] are certainly on some kind of psychopath’s spectrum. This one was really difficult because these were bars that we’d been out in. It happened in places [music] where we walk every day. It happened to people who we know. It’s left a mark on the city that’s still definitely there today.
A serial [music] rapist is starting a life sentence tonight. >> Stalking the streets of Manchester, he preyed on vulnerable, often drunk men. It was in this area [music] of Manchester that Reynhard Sinaga targeted his victims. Night after night, [music] Sinaga would leave his Manchester flat to go and find victims.
Reynhard Sinaga came to the UK in 2007 on a student visa. The judge described Sinaga as a monster. [music] This is an absolutely unprecedented case. He’d pose as a good Samaritan, offering help. Police found mobile phones and watches kept as mementos. It’s been devastating [music] for them.
Reynhard Sinaga is a deprived individual. Reynhard Tambos Maruli Tua Sinaga have some men who’ve thought about taking their own lives. They found hundreds of hours of video. On one occasion, it took him just 60 seconds to pick up a victim. A 10-year campaign of violent sexual crime >> targeting central Manchester at night from the shadows.
This is a case which begs some terrible questions. One of which is how could [music] it have gone on for so long without having been uncovered? >> [music] [music] >> What makes Manchester a great city is that it’s vibrant. It’s a fun place to go out for a night out. It’s welcoming. It’s accepting. We help each other and we’re proud, you know, to be Mancunians.
Part of the reason Sinaga loved Manchester is that he could be himself. He could kind of express himself. He’d said this to his his ex-boyfriend who I interviewed. He said Sinaga told him he didn’t like growing up in Indonesia because he couldn’t express who he was. That’s why he moved to Manchester and he just loved it.
He had a family that was quite wealthy. So, as I understand it, his father is a sort of palm oil tycoon is probably the wrong word, but certainly got rich in [music] the sort of world of palm oil. You know, he didn’t like going back to Indonesia. Every time he had to go back, he would cut his hair short. He grew up in a family [music] that has outspokenly said homophobic things.
He didn’t seem to have a great relationship with his father, according to his ex-boyfriend that we spoke to. He was probably coming to a terms with what must have been a difficult upbringing for you know, a young man coming [music] to terms with his sexuality in Indonesia, to a strict Christian family. From that point on, moving to Manchester, [music] he came into a very different world.
He could be who he was, he could be openly gay, he could enjoy nights out. He specifically lived in [music] the going out district. >> He could grow his hair long, he could wear what he wanted. He did various degrees, he [music] was a clever student. Reynhard Tambos Maruli >> And so, when he got to Manchester, of course, he absolutely loved it.
>> [applause] >> Especially the four bars and clubs where it happened. >> [music] >> Seneca was right in the heart of the student district of Manchester. He lived where all the nightclubs were and all the bars were. And this whole street is one of the biggest sort of areas for going out and clubbing for students in Manchester.
And very often on a busy evening, the queue to get in would stretch right under Seneca’s window. >> [music] >> So, he had this sort of secret life that people didn’t know about. He has been quite systematically perpetrating his crimes. He would pick a nightclub, a busy nightclub, usually. Prey on people in the queue or in the smoking area.
He targeted mostly [music] heterosexual men when they were drunk uh waiting for buses or or taxis home. So, this is men who have often already have been drinking. They’re often in need of something. He preyed on them uh by kind of offering them somewhere to stay while they kind of sobered up. >> He’d help people who lost their wallets.
He’d help people who phones needed charging. And so, this idea was, “My flat’s around the corner. Come with me. I will help you.” So, in this way, he’s posing [music] as a good Samaritan. Any excuse, really, to get them back to his flat. Once there, almost every time, play the good Samaritan, offer them a drink.
Many men accept [music] these drinks, and at least one of them often is laced with a date rape drug, GHB. And so, these laced drugs have a very quick effect, and we know that men almost immediately will start to feel the effects of the drug. They start to get drowsy, they start to get more pliable, and then they, [music] at some point, fall asleep.
And while they’re asleep, while they’re unconscious, in his small room, often on the floor, in a quite dingy sort of environment, [music] he then systematically rapes them and often rapes them multiple [music] times over the course of the night. The night we we started off met our friend’s house at about uh 10:00 ish half 10:00.
Had a few drinks there. Then my mom took us to the factory. We had a couple more double vodka and lemonade. It’s quite a few more drinks. It’s quite quietish at this point still. >> [music] >> See my friends went to the toilet and then one of the friends I was with I lost them, so I’ll go outside for a bit to cool down.
>> [music] >> Once I was outside I wasn’t able to contact them because obviously we’re inside a club. Music’s loud. You’re not going to hear your phone vibrating. I had to wait outside for another 15 20 minutes. >> [music] >> I was sat on a corner step inside. And I see this body walking [music] past. Catches my eye.
He starts walking over to me. He comes sits next to me. Starts talking about general studies, about his school, how his college is going. He’s just like a normal student, so I thought similar as to me, very friendly and open. I had nothing to worry about. I thought he was just I thought he was just a student looking after another student.
>> [music] >> He offered me to go back to his to keep warm while you’re waiting for your friends. And then it supplied probably about 1:00, so it is quite cold outside. I walked back with him past the club and then into his flat. He offered me a few drinks, uh a few shots. Cuz he said he was still drinking at this point.
And I thought nothing about this point, nothing really to worry about. It’s just a normal guy who’s asking me to stay inside, keep warm. >> [music] >> In Sinaga’s flat, there was a sort of cocktail table full of various spirits and and mixers, which is where he would have got the drinks for um the guys who came back to his flat.
>> [music] >> As he poured the drinks, I went to the toilet. I come back. Both shots poured and then I end up taking the two shots. So, I took a red like a ready well like a fireball he wanted. Tasted fine this [music] is normal what they look like a white clear fluid like it look like a sambuca or vodka. Soon as I had that one my uh my head was all over the place.
Felt like I was going to throw up. >> [music] >> Started stumbling to the bathroom. >> [music] >> At that point I tried to call my friends or text them or call someone to say >> [music] >> this is where I am. He stopped me like basically grabbed my hands and slightly [music] stopped me from phoning them. Saying that no you are in too much of a a bad state you need to relax you need to rest and then he got my phone and took my phone off me.
I don’t know for the next like 5 hours or so I don’t remember anything. >> [music] >> I woke up. My face down on a pillow. With my hair >> [music] >> jeans and pants down to like my knee area. I was on the floor on a quilt. I mean my head slid to the side.
I turned around and I saw he he was on top of me. At this point I was very disorientated. Didn’t really know where I was. I’ve just woken up from being drugged for 5 hours or so. So I didn’t have any recollection of where I actually was. As soon as he realized that I was up he started trying to pull me down. Biting me, pulling my t-shirt to keep me basically in his room.
I was scared. Didn’t know what to do. This guy’s biting me, hitting me. Just keep trying to stop me from leaving the apartment. I was still disorientated. All the adrenaline was pumping through me. It It basically was survival. I hit him. Finally he let’s go of me. >> [music] >> Once I basically leave that room to escape his apartment he attacks me again there.
>> [music] >> He just runs up and headbutts me and I basically throw him over the top of it. While this guy hits him, trying to [music] get him to let go of it. Finally, he lets go and that’s when I run out the door. Once he escaped the apartment, I would run out the fire exit. I see a person walk across the road and I basically run over to him and ask him to use his phone.
He’s very worried as I’m covered in blood. But after a bit of pleading, he gives me his phone, lets me phone the police. Hello? I think someone from guys tried to rape me. I think he forced he slipped me something, like I don’t know. And now So now he was taken out of his flat in Montana House on a stretcher. They told me to go to Longsight police station and they took him to the hospital.
He was in high intensity care for a few days. The lad beat him up so badly that paramedics initially believed he had a bleed on the brain. And the victim of the sexual assault was actually arrested himself for assaulting Sinaga. I was questioned as the perpetrator. I was the one who beat this man up and they had the police said it originally was I I basically chose to meet this guy and then somewhat went wrong so I beat him up.
So for the full weekend, he was the victim, I was the perpetrator. Whilst in hospital the suspicions began to build up in the police’s mind that he was just too keen to get his phones back. He was extremely agitated and persistent in wanting to recover his phones because the guy who’d been arrested for assault had told police no, I’ve been I’m the victim of rape, I’m the victim of a sexual assault.
The you need to be arresting the guy in hospital. So this smelt something fishy. I received a phone call from a uh detective chief inspector to ask me if I would go over to the police headquarters to to uh have a conversation about a emerging case. >> [music] >> Nobody at the time knew how big this case [music] was going to be.
All we knew at that point sat around that table >> [music] >> in this big boardroom was essential that this is an individual who is Indonesian who uh uh, has potentially either attempted [music] or actually raped one or two men. And that’s really all we knew at that point. The flat was searched. Material was seized. That’s when police began to unravel this huge ordeal.
What we were beginning to know, and it was very, very early stages, >> [music] >> was that there was material on a mobile phone that led investigators to believe that there were more men who potentially [music] had been uh, engaged in some kind of non-consensual sexual activity. There was something like 3.
2 terabytes of data that were found on two mobile phones. Several hard drives, laptops would be enough to fill 330 >> [music] >> DVDs. So, we’re talking an absolute monstrous pile of of of recordings. He seemed to get particular delight in filming what had happened, and one presumes in in watching them over and over again thereafter.
They found the evidence. And now they’re at his They’re at the hospital bed with police around him. And that’s when Sinaga was arrested. [music] Do you prefer to be called Reynaud Rey? I don’t mind, really. Okay. The questions we [music] ask, you can choose to answer them or not. That’s entirely up to yourself. I understand.
Just to remind you that [music] you are under caution for an offense of rape. I I I deny delegation of the rape. He describes that after his last shot, which was a clear substance, [music] he doesn’t remember anything. The next thing he remembers is you on top of him naked. And I believe that you gave him something [music] to put him into that state.
I don’t have any kind of substances. This is what I can’t understand is how an 18-year-old boy suddenly is in a state [music] where he cannot recall things and he passes out. You’ve not told me the truth. And this video [music] will undermine everything that you’ve told me today. So, maybe maybe if you just explain what Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I think it was it was quite portentous um when we first uh reviewed the case as it then stood. The first file review in July 2017 stated it would appear that the defendant is something of a predator who has been targeting lone vulnerable males. It would appear drugging them and then filming himself sexually assaulting them. Investigations are at a very early stage, but the indications are [music] that there are likely to be further victims.
I chair the rape and serious sexual offenses partnership board and as we began to meet, it became clearer and clearer that this case was growing. So, I’d worked for the Crown Prosecution Service as independent counsel [music] for a number of years. I had undertaken a large number of rape cases over a number of years whereby I had prosecuted successfully a number of rapists.
I’d [music] formed a very good working relationship with a woman called Rohima Vithiananthan. One day she phoned me and said that she had a a weighty and important case. She came to chambers and explained that there was an offender in Manchester who it seemed had drugged and raped a large number of men. >> [music] >> It quickly became [music] clear when she described the circumstances to me that there were manifold victims.
She and I sat in chambers for two days and watched videos, recordings on mobile telephones, >> [music] >> which the defendant had made so far as the rape offenses were concerned. >> I had to make sure that the curtains were closed so that nobody could see in. I had to make sure that nobody could come into the room that I was working in.
And I had to go through hundreds of hours of footage. And that the level of that recording, the quality of that recording, was extremely good. He’d had one phone which was placed to his side which could capture the offending in profile as it was committed. And then he had a second >> [music] >> mobile phone which he would hold close to the victims in order to capture the specifics of the penetration.
So, the films were very graphic. These people are comatose, you know, some of them are snoring whilst the the activity is going [music] on. Some are vomiting. So, for example, a number of men vomited whilst they were under the influence of GHB and the defendant nevertheless continued to rape them. One was he was actually vomiting.
I have a very clear memory of one who was lying in his own vomit such that you could hear it on the film sloshing around as he moved whilst the defendant [music] nevertheless continued to rape him. There were other instances where men were injured so that their anus became lacerated [music] as a consequence of the penetration.
But, um the defendant would wipe them and would wipe blood from them whilst he was >> [music] >> penetrating them. There was a lot of very bright red blood that was visible on the films. He also, um would film his sperm resting in the anus of various victims as well. So, these were grotesque films. And you have to be aware that these men, some of them were raped once or twice, >> [music] >> but some of them were kept captive for 14, 16 hours and raped on manifold occasions throughout that time, >> [music] >> uh which led to
them, um you know, having to be drugged again >> [music] >> by the defendant, topped up, if you like. He was callous and savage in his offending. Savage [music] in the way in which he dealt with these men. A callous disregard for who they were, whether they were gay or not was an irrelevance to [music] them.
Their their lives, their whether they had children or partners or wives, all of it was an irrelevance. He wore a condom, I think, on one [music] occasion for one of the victims. And so, for all the rest of them, he was there was no, [music] um protection whatsoever. They were penetrated without protection. Some of them, as I said, [music] bled.
He ejaculated inside of them uh for the majority of the offenses. [music] And so, he had no regard at all for whether or not they were HIV positive [music] or whether he was HIV positive, whether there was any sexually transmitted disease, nothing [music] uh interfered with his base desire to rape. Nothing. And of course he became emboldened [music] over time.
You could watch the videos and he became more expert at his offending as time went on. And more cavalier really in his approach because he knew what to do. He knew how to ensure that they were sufficiently drugged. And he he became more practiced at his crimes. And had as that went on, that was accompanied by an increasing disregard for their well-being.
[music] An increasing lack of nervousness really. And there was one particular victim who had accidentally pressed record on his mobile telephone. You can hear the words that were said by the defendant trying to ask him if he was okay, whether or not he was feeling sleepy, did he want to lie down. [music] And he was using what looked to me and sounded as if they were tried and tested techniques as far as he was concerned to make sure that the victim was sufficiently vulnerable so that he could rape them.
Or as if they were [music] simply not real to him. It was as if they were just there to meet [music] his needs. And that all that counted what were was his needs to have with them, to rape. And their needs were an irrelevance as far as he was concerned. There was one case where a man tried to get up.
Of course he’s drugged at this stage so his physical capabilities are lacking. Tried to rid himself of the defendant but was unable to do so. And that turned into a violent struggle. So, the defendant had [music] to use his own body weight, use his own strength as much as he was able to hold them down in order to stop them from thrashing and to stop them from struggling [music] to prevent his offending.
It was particularly unpleasant to to be able to see that the [music] defendant enjoyed that. >> [music] >> They never wanted me to actually see the videos. They did take screenshots of it to like to prove that was me. It was like a screenshot of me like I was asleep. Me and my face off my t-shirt I was wearing, the jeans, the trousers wearing that day.
So, I saw like four or five screenshots [music] to prove that that was me. It is something that all practitioners [music] who carry out this sort of work, I’m afraid deal with very, very regularly. Because my job involves dealing [music] with grotesque things. But, as a man, rather than as a lawyer, from time to time, I think about it.
And >> [music] >> of course, there are certain things that once you’ve seen them, they can’t be unseen. And those memories remain. I sometimes [music] have flashbacks as to things that I’ve seen. It was very very surreal to see me like like that. You know, I had to do it just to be able to get on with it cuz if [music] I didn’t, then he could be walking free.
All the while, material was being downloaded from the phones. >> [music] >> And that was a very delicate process. The difficulty that the police [music] had suffered from was that it was almost impossible at that stage to identify who everybody was. But I think they knew that [music] they had 198 separate victims, of which around 50 had been identified.
And a further 150 were [music] yet to be identified. When the flat was searched, a small collection of items taken from victims by Sinaga were found. He collected trophies so far as his victims were concerned, which was >> [music] >> again an extraordinary aspect of the case. So whilst he was offending them, very often he would look them up on Facebook, and he would capture on the screen of one of the mobile telephones.
He would capture the >> [music] >> Facebook profile of the person that he was offending against. They found certain items in either Sinaga’s phone memory or his flat. Business cards, credit cards for some of them, wallets, IDs, passports, watches, or even smaller things, belt buckles perhaps, that were regarded as souvenirs by Sinaga, and he kept them to remember his victims by.
A sort of trophy, really. And that’s how police began this process of trying to identify his victims. That didn’t solve the problem of the victims being unaware as to what had happened, and were therefore unable to tell the police what in fact they’d suffered. And the only way to do that, the only evidence which existed to demonstrate that, with the films themselves.
Police have to go to people’s houses to identify them. >> [music] >> That’s Yeah, it must be an incredibly difficult moment when you get that knock on the door. You’ve, as a man, you know, you think maybe you’ve met this nice guy. Sometimes you even give your phone number, and and you go on with your life not knowing what’s happened until one day the police show up and tell you that you’ve been brutally raped, and [music] that Sinaga has filmed the whole thing on his phone.
And if you want, you can now watch the video footage. There were several men who told what had happened, and said to them, “You must You must have the wrong guy. You must be mistaken, because that didn’t happen to me. I would know if that had happened to me.” And they were shown uh screen grabs of themselves on [music] Sinaga’s phone, and yeah, realized that actually it had happened to them.
There was one >> [music] >> rape I remember where a man was screaming, “No.” whilst it took place. And he didn’t recall that happening. But he was shouting, “No.” as he was being penetrated. From a psychological perspective, I don’t I I It must be absolutely absolutely crushing to hear that these terrible things have happened to you.
What horrific [music] position to put people in. People who’ve been living their lives not knowing that something has happened, and then to say, >> [music] >> “Do you want to watch yourself get raped?” That must be absolutely [music] earth-shattering for anyone. But maybe with an extra element if you’re a heterosexual man [music] who has been raped by a man.
>> [music] >> I think we were sat in the office when we first heard how many victims there might [music] have been. Someone said it’s it’s around 200. And we were like nervous. It can’t possibly be because we would have heard of it. You know, the police would have told us that they’d uncovered not just a a mass serial rapist.
Someone on the scale of of 200 victims is beyond anything we’ve ever known, anything that’s ever happened. So, we didn’t initially believe it to be true, but we walked across the road, went to Manchester Crown Court, and the trial was underway. The first time I walked into the courtroom for the case, and I saw Sinaga sat between two security officers in the dock, and I thought >> [music] >> I must be in the wrong trial.
I just couldn’t stop looking at him. He was tiny in comparison to the two [music] security officers he was sat in between. He had shoulder-length hair. He had um quite trendy glasses. So, one of the remarkable aspects, I think, of the case was [music] how mild-mannered Mr. Sinaga was. He wasn’t a violently spoken or aggressively spoken man.
He was a almost tender human being in way in which he presented, caring, nurturing. He’s quite effeminate. But, uh he was polite. He was impassive. He looked friendly. He was chatting with his two security officers. [music] And most of all, really, he looked harmless, completely harmless. I guess that’s the thing that makes him most dangerous.
So, for a long time when I sat in this trial hearing what Sinaga had done to these men, >> [music] >> it was just incredible. Literally incredible because it just didn’t seem to fit the man who was sat in the dock. He persisted in running this quite ludicrous defense that his victims uh were in fact lying when they told the court that um they uh hadn’t consented to this activity.
I I challenged him in robust terms on many occasions about aspects of his case. His case was that all of these men had agreed to um play a sex game [music] with him where they would pretend to be asleep. >> taking this footage. Yeah? He was awake. He was awake that time. So, how has changed [music] his position? He’s not changed his position.
You’ve changed your position by doing what you’re doing to him. No, he moved. He moved. You turned him. No, I did I did not. I did not. Yeah. He was awake. I’m 100% sure. >> [sighs and gasps] >> Why are you crying? Because you don’t believe me. I don’t believe you right now. I don’t believe that he He awake at that stage.
>> He was awake. Why does he not reciprocate? Why does he not stroke your leg? Why does he not kiss you? Why does he not gyrate into you at that point? Probably he didn’t know what to do. He just lay down there. He didn’t know what to do, did he? He’s 16 years younger than you. I can’t even begin to tell you how devastated this 18-year-old boy is [snorts] that I have had to tell him what you have done to him because he didn’t even know that this had been filmed.
Oh, [ __ ] So, there were many, many films where the victims were loudly snoring. And they were more liable to snore because, of course, they’re drugged. They’re not sleeping naturally. And they fall into positions they wouldn’t ordinarily fall into. And so, they snore more readily. And so, loud snoring would take place.
Or could be heard on a number of the films. It is impossible for any right-minded person who wasn’t mad, who wasn’t insane, he was just criminally minded. It would be impossible for him, >> [music] >> as it would be impossible for anybody, to believe anything other than these men were asleep. I was stood facing the jury.
He was to the left of me. And give my evidence to the jury. They’d obviously seen my video tapes of what happened to me. So, it’s basically just cross-examining me at this point. There were people from the military who’d been raped who gave their answers in a very strategic, [music] almost, answers in a very structured way. Um and that ranged from from those victims to some men who’d attempted suicide of it consequence of what they’d learned, and were incredibly emotional.
Those men who were able psychologically as well to sit in a courtroom [music] and watch the video of themselves getting raped, to have their families potentially next to them while watching or hearing these accounts, [music] these these this footage, I think is unspeakably difficult.
And so, that then is carried not just that weight is carried [music] not just in the courtroom, but is carried outside as well. Snoga seemed to get some perverse satisfaction of not just [music] himself being able to watch the footage back, but all these people in this courtroom, and the judge herself being able to watch this footage. It was like he was enjoying the spectacle a second time, and there was some speculation among members of the press and lawyers about whether he was pleading not guilty despite the overwhelming evidence just so that it
could go to trial, so that he could then watch all this footage again. So, there’d been [music] a sort of relentless line of men relating their stories to me and to the court. But he nevertheless chose to put those people through it. Anyway, which was a despicable thing to do. Knowing the effect that giving evidence would have upon them.
Having been through the ordeal of what he’d made them suffer [music] in the first instance. I was just I just felt it was so terribly, terribly unfair that a young man had to live the rest of his life knowing that [music] that had happened to at the hands of somebody didn’t need to put him through the ordeal of giving evidence again with no potential gain it seemed to me to the defendant whatsoever.
It was a callous act by Reynhard Sinaga which mirrored really his offending in the first instance. He never looked [music] remorseful during my case and I He was laughing and joking with the the prison officer who was laughing and joking with him. Yeah, he just really seemed to be enjoying the process and showing absolutely no remorse whatsoever.
He was sort of flicking his hair throughout this harrowing you know testimony from victims saying how their lives have been turned upside down by what he’d done. He was really blasé about the whole thing. After the end of the first trial Sinaga was aware that he’d been convicted. He um insisted on maintaining [music] his not guilty plea even in the fourth trial.
Um one can only assume that he takes some sort of delight, gets some sort of kick out of watching [music] his victims have to go through it in court, give evidence, describe in detail what had happened to them. In the same way presumably as he derived some sort of satisfaction from um replaying what was on his phone to watch the acts over and over again.
Indeed he almost seemed uh bored when it came to the sentence [music] being imposed, yawned in court. The judge ordered him to stand up while she addressed him. Uh while she sentenced him. He looked straight ahead at her. His hands were clasped in front of him like this. >> [music] >> And at the end of it she looked really sternly at him and said, “Take him down.
Take him away.” And the two dock officers just led him down, [music] and he didn’t really look at anyone on his way out. He just had this sort of thin smile on his face almost. And he was going to get a life sentence. So, a life sentence in the [music] UK means that you are, in the first instance, to be held for the rest of your life.
He received, as a 35-year-old man or thereabouts, a sentence which meant he would be in his old age before he would be able to apply for parole. There’s been never any apology, uh, either personally or through his counsel, uh, at the conclusion of any of the trials, even the fourth trial when, um, you know, he would be aware that some proceedings were almost certainly at an end.
He seems untouched by the whole process, to be honest. He sort of seemed to be enjoying the process of everyone talking about him. And that’s kind of what we heard from his friends is that he was just the ultimate narcissist. >> [music] >> He enjoyed people speaking about him. He enjoyed talking about himself. Manchester as a kind of student city with quite an active, um, like, going out scene, I think, was was kind of a prime spot for him to to prey on on the people he he targeted.
He came across, certainly, to his [music] colleagues and friends as an outgoing person, as a dynamic person, as someone who’s very friendly, as someone who’s very helpful, and he was [music] quite attractive. The Sinaga case is a is a prime example of why rape isn’t about sex or or sexuality or sexual orientation.
It’s about power. He preyed [music] on men who were heterosexual, but as you know, a a good-looking guy in a in a liberal city, he could have had >> [music] >> lots of sexual relationships with consenting men if he’d have chosen to do so. But obviously, for him, it was about this kind of dominance over over the these guys and taking something that that wasn’t his.
Personally speaking, I think that we [music] are certainly uh on some kind of um psychopath spectrum, for want of [music] a better word. The way that he has has conducted himself [music] in court, I just think there’s something there’s something very unnatural about that kind of behavior. Some of the details that came out in the trial were that he had this WhatsApp group with friends that he used to boast about straight guys he’d seduced as he said.
Boasting about, you know, essentially [music] raping guys. Another detail that came out was that one of the guys who who stayed over at his house woke up the next day to lots of angry text messages from his girlfriend. And he was marched by his girlfriend to Sinaga’s house um to to prove that, you know, he wasn’t having an affair, he hadn’t slept with someone else. It wasn’t a girl’s house.
And And Sinaga, playing as ever the kind of role of like the calculated role of good Samaritan, went down and explained to his girlfriend, you know, that he was just too drunk [music] and nothing had happened. Which I think demonstrates just how um you know, how much calculation went behind this and how he >> [music] >> he targeted people.
How, you know, many of the victims didn’t know anything anything before. When the story first broke, a tweet emerged of a guy on a night out with a picture [music] of him and Sinaga, him um expressing his gratitude at being sort of saved and rescued by Sinaga. >> These four criminal trials that So, he will have only realized when the story became >> [music] >> national news, international news, that actually the person who he thought had saved him on that night out had actually raped him.
Not only was it a huge deal, uh it was something that happened so local to us, so close to us. These were bars [music] that we’d been out in. These were uh streets that we’d walked. Um >> [music] >> Sinaga lived just off one of the main roads in Manchester city center. So, we all knew where this happened. So, there is a real intrigue about uh serial killers and [music] and a mass rapist.
But, I don’t think anyone’s ever seen or I don’t think anyone could [music] really conceive of someone perpetrating 200 rapes and sexual assaults in in way that Reynhard Sinaga did. So, there wasn’t a type [music] particularly cuz the personalities were an irrelevance to him. They were just like dead bodies who’d been drugged.
Who they were, what they were, what they wanted, what they did, all of that was an irrelevance to the defendant cuz it was just the the way in which the defendant targeted people, it was anybody. It was a it could have been anyone. It’s unfathomable almost. It’s really difficult to comprehend. We see stuff on the news.
We watch television programs almost nightly where there’s a murder or there’s a there’s a serious rape or sexual sexual assault. But, when you’re talking about nearly 200 victims by one man, that’s on a different scale. I’ve been prosecuting 30 years and I’ve never come across a case like it. And I have not actually seen a case where a gay man is specifically [music] targeting heterosexual men.
So, that’s unusual. You know, Sinaga is probably Britain’s, if not the world’s, most prolific rapist, certainly that’s ever come before a court. You know, more men were attacked by Sinaga than any other known perpetrator of rape or sexual abuse. In Britain, in Europe, perhaps even the world, that’s how that’s how big this was.
It hits you, it grabs you cuz you think it could happen to me. We all walk home in the dark. We all walk to work in the dark. Could happen to anyone. >> [music] [music] >> I think that the consequences of that are far-reaching. [music] It doesn’t happen. Men are meant to be all big and strong and like all that that stigma type stuff that normal males wear is we don’t talk and it’s just But the stigma of male rape is very much you can’t talk about it and all >> [music] >> men don’t talk.
If you don’t then it’s not how you win. I’ve just tried to get on with it. If you just get on with your life either way, I don’t [music] need the all the extra stuff after it. How likely or how plausible is it that there are further victims yet that we don’t know about? Oh, I think I think there are there will almost certainly be further victims that we don’t know of yet.
Um as I say, we we’ve had to really just um >> [music] >> restrict our inquiry to um what Sinaga’s phones [music] have revealed. He may have had other phones other devices that he’s got rid of. Yeah, there’s still people who don’t know. There will be people who don’t know. And there’ll be people who won’t want to know either. But the police are still trying to trace as many people as possible.
They’ll be looking at all these souvenirs, trying to connect them. And then there remain quite a significant number that despite our best efforts [music] um have not been able to uh be identified. And um the police continue to [music] try to work out who these men are. But without um much success as as we speak now.
Whether there’ll ever be a final tally of how many people he actually attacked remains to be seen. It’s it’s really unknown. I think the 200 figure is from the souvenirs that police have been able to trace to two people. So that may in some ways be a conservative figure. We just We just don’t know. I just think it would be ludicrous to assume that everybody who has been uh directly impacted by Sinaga has now spoken out.
The only person who might have any idea is uh sat in Strangeways. >> [music] >> And for the time that he’s been in there, which is more than 2 years, Sinaga’s been in in prison. He’s been refusing to engage with detectives. He’s been refusing to engage with psychologists. He’s been refusing to engage with probation officers.
There’ll be people out there watching this who have just no idea what happened. All of the evidence as to the offending against them but one came [music] from the films. So, we could only evidence and only ever evidence that which the defendant had filmed himself. But it must be right, it seems to me, that other men were offended against whereby the defendant did not film them.
It is right that men were filmed who were offended against and who have subsequently not been identified. There are, I think, around 50 from [music] the original list who’ve not been identified. But the defendant has been in the United Kingdom or had been for a number of years, had lived in a number of areas.
Whilst he might not have been as practiced as his criminality as he was, it seems impossible to me that he hadn’t committed similar offenses against similar men, either at the same address or elsewhere, whereby he hadn’t filmed them or that the filming hadn’t recorded or that there was just no video evidence as to what had taken place.
And so, I suppose that the reality is it it’s more than possible, if not probable, that there are people who may even be watching this film who’ve been attacked and raped by Mr. Sinaga that they don’t know and I’m afraid they will never find out. The only one with the answers in this is is Reynhard Sinaga. He’s the only one who really knows the extent of what he’s done.
>> [music] [music] [music] >> Oh.
