Joseph McCann and Reynard Sinaga: Notorious rapists whose crimes ‘shocked the nation’ have jail terms increased to 40 years
Written by News on 11/12/2020
Two notorious rapists whose crimes “shocked the nation” have had their minimum jail terms increased from 30 to 40 years.
The decision to extend the sentences of Joseph McCann and Reynard Sinaga was made by the Court of Appeal.
In a statement after the ruling, Solicitor General Michael Ellis QC said: “Both offenders carried out some of the most heinous and depraved sexual attacks that shocked the nation.
“I am grateful for the guidance the court gave about whole life orders and I am pleased that the court imposed a longer minimum term.
“I hope this brings some solace to the victims of these despicable crimes.”
McCann, 35, was given 33 life sentences at the Old Bailey last December for a string of sex attacks on 11 women and children – one aged 11 – during a 15-day cocaine and vodka-fuelled rampage.
The next month, 37-year-old Reynard Sinaga was handed a life sentence at Manchester Crown Court on conviction of more than 150 offences committed against 48 men – although police have linked him to more than 190 potential victims.
The Attorney General’s Office referred the 30-year minimum jail terms handed to both of them to the Court of Appeal earlier this year for being “unduly lenient”.
At a hearing in London in October, Solicitor General Michael Ellis QC argued the pair should either have been given whole life terms or longer minimum terms for their crimes, which were among “some of the worst and most violent that this country has ever witnessed”.
A panel of five judges refused to impose whole life terms on McCann and Sinaga, but increased their minimum sentences to 40 years.
Giving the ruling, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett said that while their offending was “very serious indeed… it does not, in our judgment, call for either to receive a whole life tariff.”
“This is not to minimise the seriousness of their offending, but instead to ensure that the most severe sentence in our jurisdiction is reserved, save exceptionally, either for the most serious cases involving loss of life, or when a substantive plan to murder of similar seriousness is interrupted close to fulfilment.”
Lord Burnett said that McCann and Sinaga’s crimes were some of the most serious rape offences the senior judges on the case had ever dealt with in England and Wales.
He added: “Neither man has shown any remorse and the long-term psychological damage for at least some of the victims in both trials is profound and will only be understood in the years to come.”
Whether either man is ever released will depend on the parole board’s assessment of the risk they pose after serving their minimum terms.
McCann committed a string of sex attacks in London and the North West in April and May 2019, two months after the convicted burglar was wrongly freed from prison following “major failings” by probation staff.
He was described by sentencing judge, Mr Justice Edis, as a “classic psychopath”.
Sinaga – the UK’s most prolific serial rapist – preyed on lone, drunk young men around nightclubs near his flat in Manchester, posing as a Good Samaritan who offered them a floor to sleep on or promised them more alcohol.
The Indonesian student drugged the men, then filmed himself sexually violating them while they were unconscious, with many having little or no memory of the assaults.
Judge Suzanne Goddard QC, who sentenced him to a minimum of 30 years, described Sinaga as a “monster” and “an evil serial sexual predator”.
(c) Sky News 2020: Joseph McCann and Reynard Sinaga: Notorious rapists whose crimes ‘shocked the nation’ have jail terms increased to 40 years
