Man raped woman and then used her t-shirt to murder her

A man has pleaded guilty to assaulting, raping and a murdering a woman after plying her with alcohol for his own ‘sexual enjoyment’. Simon Goold, 52, met Elizabeth McCann, aged 26, on a course at the Health and Wellbeing College in Ashton-under-Lyne.

In August last year, he saw her at a coffee morning at the college and later messaged her on Facebook and asked her to meet for a drink at the Star Inn pub on Old Street.

Goold bought Ms McCann, who was on medication and rarely drank alcohol, several rounds of vodka and coke, along with numerous shots of Sambuca, before taking her back to his flat in a taxi.

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During the trip back he sexually assaulted her, and then back at the flat he went on to rape her before using her t-shirt to strangle her which resulted in her death, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Goold, of Manchester Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, initially denied offences of murder, rape, sexual assault and assault by penetration, but following the first day of his trial, he had now pleaded guilty to all of the offences. He will be sentenced tomorrow (February 22).

Opening the case for the prosecution, Nick Johnson KC said: “This is a case of a man in his 50s targeting a much younger woman in her 20s who he knew to be vulnerable, plying her with enough alcohol to get her drunk, sexually assaulting her in a taxi when she was quite incapable of consenting, then when back at his flat carrying out further, brutal sexual assaults and rape, leaving her with significant and severe injuries.

“The Prosecution say the defendant obtained sexual enjoyment in her humiliation, a pleasure in inflicting injury and pain and provoking her fear.