Joseph McCann and Reynard Sinaga have their minimum jail terms increased
Two of Britain’s worst rapists Joseph McCann and Reynard Sinaga get extra 10 years each in jail but Appeal Court judges REFUSE to give them whole life sentences
- McCann, 35, handed 33 life sentences at the Old Bailey in December for attacks
- Sinaga, 37, was also sentenced to life in January at Manchester Crown Court
- Pair today had both their minimum jail terms increased from 30 to 40 years
Notorious rapists Joseph McCann and Reynard Sinaga have had their minimum jail terms increased from 30 to 40 years by the Court of Appeal.
McCann, 35, was given 33 life sentences at the Old Bailey in December for a string of horrific sex attacks on 11 women and children during a 15-day cocaine and vodka-fuelled rampage.
Sinaga, 37, was also sentenced to life in January at Manchester Crown Court for a total of 159 offences, including 136 counts of rape, 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 McCann and Sinaga to the Court of Appeal as ‘unduly lenient’ earlier this year.
But a panel of five judges today refused to impose whole life terms on McCann and Sinaga, as sought by the Solicitor General Michael Ellis QC at a hearing in October.
Notorious rapists Joseph McCann (right) and Reynard Sinaga (left) have had their minimum jail terms increased from 30 to 40 years by the Court of Appeal
Giving the court’s ruling, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett said: ‘The offending in the cases of McCann and Sinaga, very serious indeed though it is, does not, in our judgment, call for either to receive a while 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 in the collective experience of the senior judges who heard the case, McCann and Sinaga’s crimes are some of the most serious offences of rape to have been tried within 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.’
The judge said whether either man is in fact ever released from prison will depend on the Parole Board’s assessment of the risk they pose after they have served their minimum jail terms.
Sinaga, 37, was sentenced to life in January at Manchester Crown Court for a total of 159 offences, including 136 counts of rape, committed against 48 men – although police have linked him to more than 190 potential victims
Judge Suzanne Goddard QC, who sentenced him to a minimum of 30 years, described Sinaga as ‘an evil serial sexual predator’ and a ‘monster’
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.’
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.’
At a hearing in London in October, Mr Ellis argued the pair should be given whole life terms for their crimes, which he said were among ‘some of the worst and most violent that this country has ever witnessed’.
He said McCann’s catalogue of offending was of the ‘utmost gravity’ and included the use of violence and a ‘desire to humiliate and degrade his victims’.
He told the court the effect on his victims was ‘profound’ and they had suffered ‘severe psychological damage’ as a result.
Mr Ellis said: ‘These offences are among the most serious sexual offences ever seen in our courts.’
The Solicitor General described Sinaga as ‘the most prolific sex offender the courts have ever seen’.
He added: ‘The effect on his victims has been devastating and will remain with them for the rest of their lives.’
Mr Ellis said a whole life term for each offender would be a ‘proper reflection’ of their crimes and the ‘significant harm’ caused to a large number of victims.
He argued there is ‘no hierarchy of seriousness, such that homicide must always rank above sexual offending’ when courts consider sentencing.
Mr Ellis also argued that, if the court does not consider that whole life terms should be imposed, then the 30-year minimum terms handed to McCann and Sinaga should be increased.
The case was the first time two separate offenders’ sentences have been challenged together as being unduly lenient.
Lawyers representing McCann and Sinaga had argued that whole life terms are only imposed in the most serious cases of homicide.
They said that, despite the ‘extremely serious’ nature of the pair’s crimes, they could not be considered ‘on an equal footing with the very worst cases of murder’.
McCann carried out a series of sex attacks in London and the North West in April and May 2019, just two months after the convicted burglar was wrongly freed from prison following ‘major failings’ by probation staff.
He was found guilty in December of 37 charges relating to 11 victims, aged between 11 and 71, and was described by the sentencing judge, Mr Justice Edis, as a ‘classic psychopath’.
McCann at the Phoenix Lodge Hotel in Watford on the afternoon of April 25, as he left two women, his alleged victims, in his car outside
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 drink.
The Indonesian student drugged the men then filmed himself sexually violating them while they were unconscious, with many of his victims having little or no memory of the assaults.
His life in Britain as a perpetual student was funded by money sent to him by his father, a property tycoon in the conservative South-East Asian country.
Judge Suzanne Goddard QC, who sentenced him to a minimum of 30 years, described Sinaga as ‘an evil serial sexual predator’ and a ‘monster’.
Two weeks of terror: How Joseph McCann drove around the country abducting and raping his victims
Victim one, April 21 – Joseph McCann’s attacks began when he snatched a 21-year-old woman as she walked home from Pryzm nightclub in Watford in the early hours.
After kidnapping her with a knife to her throat, he told her: ‘I don’t agree with hitting women’, before raping her in her own bed.
The victim was able to preserve DNA on a tissue and prosecutors said it was ‘one billion more times likely‘ to have come from McCann.
The woman reported the attack to police, McCann’s details were put on the Police National Computer and a prison recall was issued.
McCann using a drive-thru at McDonalds on April 25, while his victim was in his car
Victim two, April 25 – He abducted a 25-year-woman as she walked home from work in Walthamstow and subjected her to a 14-hour rape ordeal.
McCann told her he ‘wanted to make her rape a child’ when they were outside a school.
Victims three and four, April 25 – Hours after abducting the 25-year-old woman, who he was still holding captive, McCann was caught on CCTV bundling a 21-year-old into his car in north London, as her sister, 18, ran off screaming.
The 21-year-old was forced to perform sex acts on the 25-year-woman and was also raped.
The two captives escaped outside the Phoenix Lodge in Watford, after the 25-year-old woman hit McCann over the head with a vodka bottle.
The Metropolitan Police circulated a CCTV image of McCann at the Phoenix Hotel and received a tip-off with his name following a public appeal.
McCann at the Phoenix Lodge Hotel in Watford on the afternoon of April 25, as he left two women, his alleged victims, in his car outside.
Victim five, six and seven, May 5 – McCann struck again after meeting a woman at a bar in Lancashire and going back to her home.
He tied the woman up with cable from her hairdryer. He then subjected her 17-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son to a horrific four hour sex ordeal where they were both raped.
The family’s ordeal came to an end when the girl jumped naked from a first floor bedroom and ran to her grandmother’s house to raise the alarm.
The 17-year-old said in a statement to police: ‘You know when you can see inside someone’s eyes and you know they are pure evil.’
Her distressing 999 call left jurors in tears and led the judge to offer them counselling half way through the trial.
McCann on a bus in Greater Manchester after attacking a family at their house
Victim eight, May 5 – After leaving the house in Lancashire, McCann then abducted a 71-year-old woman in the car park of a supermarket.
When she protested he punched her in the face and later sexually assaulted her in the car.
Victim nine, May 5 – Later that day, McCann abducted a 13-year-old girl.
He forced the pensioner, who was also in the car, to drive as he sexually assaulted the teenager.
Both the girl and the 71-year-old woman were able to escape at Knutsford service station.
Victims 10 and 11, May 5 – His final victims were two 14-year-old girls who crouched in terror on the back seat of his stolen car while being chased by police.
Roadblocks had been set up as police searched for McCann in a stolen Fiat Punto.
He was forced to flee on foot after crashing and abandoning the car and was captured on film running through the back gardens of homes in Cheshire pursued by police.
McCann looking into a Fiat car as he buys petrol and a pack of Durex condoms at a Shell garage with two 14-year-old girls allegedly in the car
McCann hid in a tree and – despite being spotted by a police helicopter – refused to give up.
Footage released by the police showed McCann being captured by a specialist team after a four hour standoff.
He was shivering having worn a wet red T-shirt he had snatched from a clothesline while running between houses.
After his arrest he taunted police by saying if they had caught him after the first two rapes he would not have been able to continue with his assaults.
May 6 – A police helicopter finally locates him up a tree, he was coaxed down and arrested.
