Date rape drugs review called for after Britain's most prolific rapist is jailed

Home Secretary Priti Patel has urged the independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to expedite a review into whether current controls are tough enough.

Her intervention came following the sentencing of serial rapist Reynhard Sinaga to at least 30 years in jail after he was convicted of offences against 48 men.

He laced alcoholic drinks with a drug such as Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), also known as liquid ecstasy.

The Class C drug has become a tool to spike drinks and has been linked to rapes and other sexual assaults when victims have blacked out.

Sinaga drugged at least 48 men and filmed himself sexually violating them while they were unconscious in his city centre apartment.

Police have linked him to more than 190 potential victims in total - 70 of whom they have not yet been able to identify.

The 36-year-old went out in the early hours of the morning, hunting for lone, drunk, young men around nightclubs near his flat in Manchester.

He posed as a Good Samaritan who offered them a floor to sleep on or promised them more drink, Manchester Crown Court heard.

His victims - who were mainly heterosexual - had little or no memory of the hours that followed as Sinaga filmed the assaults on his mobile phone, and they later left his apartment unaware they had been violated.

The rapist was caught when one of the men regained consciousness and fought him off before he went to the police and crucially handed in Sinaga's phone.

Ms Patel said: “Sinaga committed truly sickening crimes and it is right that he has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

“I extend my heartfelt sympathy to his victims and my gratitude to the police and prosecutors who worked on this case and put him behind bars.

“I'm deeply concerned by the use of illegal drugs like GHB to perpetrate these crimes and have asked the independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to expedite a review looking at whether our controls for these drugs are tough enough.”

Jailing Sinaga, Judge Suzanne Goddard QC branded him an ‘evil serial sexual predator’.

She added: “Buying such drugs on the black market and giving surreptitious doses to strangers creates a huge risk of serious harm as there is a narrow margin between a euphoric high, unconsciousness and death.

“Giving such drugs to men who have drunk large quantities of alcohol is obviously risky as such drugs have an effect on the levels of consciousness. It was a risk you were prepared to ignore to satisfy your perverted desire to have sex with unconscious heterosexual men and film your activities.

“Such drugs in sufficient doses leave the victim with a complete blackout of what has happened, but can also carry a risk ultimately of serious injury or death should anything go wrong.”

Sinaga was found guilty of a total of 159 offences committed between January 2015 and May 2017 - 136 counts of rape, 13 counts of sexual assault, eight counts of attempted rape and two counts of assault by penetration.

He kept ‘trophies’ of his crimes, such as watches and wallets.

He also downloaded social media pages from some of some of his victims, gleaned from personal identification they were carrying, and took still photographs of many of them while they were naked or semi-naked.