An MMA fighter and business student who raped a student and sexually assaulted another while under investigation for an earlier brutal rape attack was today jailed for 17 years.
Charles Goodwin was ruled to be dangerous and a judge imposed a three-year extended licence on top of the jail term. Judge Garrett Byrne told the 21-year-old business management student - who described himself to one victim as “a sex god” - that it was clear he had no care whether his victims were consenting.
The judge said: "Their consent was a matter of complete indifference to you. You treated each victim not as a human being deserving of respect, but as a plaything or toy and you took the view that once they were within your control, you could do with them as you pleased, irrespective of their wishes and without any regard to the impact that your conduct would have upon them.
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“You acted throughout as though you were entitled to fulfil your sexual desires with these young women, no matter what. At the heart of your offending lies a deep-seated misogyny where women are to be treated as nothing more than sex objects and who exist merely to satisfy your needs.”
Goodwin’s lawyer told Liverpool Crown Court that his difficult relationship with his mother in childhood had shaped some of his negative attitudes.
But Judge Bryne told Goodwin, who showed no emotion at all throughout the hearing, that while his complicated early life might go some way to explain it, there was no compelling mitigation and he had shown no remorse and still denies the offences.
Goodwin, of Hilbre Street, Liverpool city centre but formerly of Salford, had been found guilty of three charges of raping one student in Manchester, attempting to choke her, assault by penetration and assaulting her.
A jury heard how he began indecently touching her in a taxi on the way to her student accommodation.
During the 13-day trial they heard that he had told her that she deserved to be “treated like a princess” and picked her up and carried her in, but once inside he stripped them both and they had consensual sex.
He then began choking her, repeatedly slapped her across the face and despite her repeated requests to stop he raped her three times and used degrading language.
After that attack in January 2020 he next struck the following September after starting studying at the University of Liverpool.
He was convicted of raping a second student at her accommodation in the city, though cleared of two other rapes of her, and two offences of sexually assaulting a third student just three days later. He had been cleared of assaulting a fourth student by penetration.
The court heard that after the first attack in Manchester he was initially released on bail but after time limits expired he was then released under investigation. Judge Byrne told Goodwin that a shocking aspect of the case is that after he was arrested for those matters, he was released and went on to rape the second student and sexually assault the third student twice.
He said: “The fact that you were under investigation for the first set of offences did nothing to inhibit you or cause you to stop. The reverse is true – you deliberately put yourself into social situations where you could predate on young women to sexually abuse and to satisfy your carnal desires.
“Part of your modus operandi was to encourage the victims to drink as much alcohol as possible so that they would lower their defences and in one case, to ply her with so much alcohol that she did not know what she was doing, so that you could take advantage of their vulnerability."
The judge said he was satisfied he had plied the second victim with alcohol to facilitate the rape at student accommodation in Liverpool. And while she lay unconscious in bed, mostly covered by a sheet, he photographed her and sent it to her friend with a disgusting comment.
“You did this – not with the innocent motivation which you tried to persuade the jury of – but with a more sinister intent. It was designed to prolong her humiliation and to display your power over her to her friend.”
Judge Byrne said that he had taken advantage of the vulnerability of his third victim due to the amount she had drunk which had been clear to see. The court had been told that he was immature but the judge told him that did not operate to any significant degree.
He said: "I saw you give evidence. You struck me as a highly intelligent, cold, unempathetic, and manipulative person who know perfectly well that what you were doing was wrong. “
Katy Appleton, defending, said today, “He acknowledges some flaws in his behaviour namely his arrogance and his attitude towards women.”
She said his relationship with his mother had shaped some of his negative attitudes towards woman and he accepted he disrespected women. She said that there had been elements of “abandonment and harm” which may have affected his ability to empathise with his victims and creating a power struggle.
“His emotional intelligence is not developed,” she added.
In impact statements the first victim told how she was left suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and had felt suicidal and self harmed. She was unable to continue her studies and had to move back home. She was physically as well as psychologically harmed and the offences, which she described as ”the worst experience of her life” have affected her ability for form intimate relationships and she does not feel safe or in control.
The other rape victim told how she felt unable to stay in her student accommodation and was left feeling “sad, lost and anxious”. She now has difficulty socialising and feels her formerly bubbly personality has changed/
The third student told how she had to take time off from her studies, became anxious and suffered from panic attacks. Goodwin, who had a girlfriend at the time, admitted having sexual activity with all four women but maintained they had all consented and denied all 12 charges.
He said the choking of the first victim, aged 19, had also been consensual and admitted calling her offensive names as it “turned him on.”
During his evidence he described himself as a combination of “a hopeless romantic and Charlie big b******s….it is the way my personality worked.”
