Police did nothing when rapist told them a woman had spurned him... it ended in murder

Multiple failures by police, probation services and an NHS trust allowed a convicted rapist to enrol at a college where he befriended a vulnerable young woman he later murdered, an inquest has found. Simon Goold, 52, was jailed for life after he raped then strangled to death Elizabeth McCann, 26, a fellow student at the Health and Wellbeing college in Ashton-under-Lyne.

It was known that Goold, who had been convicted of rape, sexual assault and wounding in 2010, posed a danger to 'lone women' in 'certain circumstances', particularly when alcohol was involved or when he felt rejected. But despite that he was allowed to join the college without a risk assessment taking place.

That 'probably' contributed to Ms McCann's death, senior coroner Alison Mutch said. Probation and police also failed to properly act upon a number of warning signs, including Goold informing them he had had a 'small relapse' with alcohol and an admission that a woman he hoped to become 'intimate' with had decided not to pursue the relationship.

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But police and probation 'failed to exhibit any professional curiosity', probably due to their 'large workloads', wrote Ms Mutch. "It is possible that this lack of action by Greater Manchester Police and probation contributed to Elizabeth's death," she added.

The inquest also heard the college, which is run by NHS mental health trust Pennine Care, and probation had failed to set up an 'effective referral system' to manage 'high risk' students such as Goold. An incident in a Wetherspoons pub in Ashton in July 2022, where an inebriated Goold tried to kiss Ms McCann's friend Gaynor Hammerton, a