Two rape victims have spoken out about their ordeal after after they were pursued by MMA fighter Charles Goodwin.
Mixed martial arts fighter Goodwin, from Liverpool, was convicted of raping two students and sexually assaulting another on Friday, January 22. The 21-year-old business management student was found guilty of three charges of raping one student in Manchester, and of assaulting her by penetration.
He was also found guilty of one charge of raping a student in Liverpool. The jury also convicted him of two offences of sexually assaulting a third student in Liverpool but cleared him of a sexual assault on a fourth student, also in Liverpool.
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Speaking to The Times, one of Goodwin's victims, Sarah, said she was in her first week of university when she met Goodwin. At first she thought the 21-year-old was attractive and slept with him.
She said: "I thought he was a nice-looking boy and he had a way with words." Sarah added things were casual between the pair and not long after she discovered he had a girlfriend back home, she started to dislike him.
A few nights later Sarah joined in a drinking game at a party to be sociable and Goodwin was also there. A witness told Liverpool Crown Court he singled her out to repeatedly take shots until she was so drunk she could not stand unaided.
Another friend realised how drunk she was and put her to bed but during the night, when Sarah was far too drunk to consent, Goodwin took her to his room. He later sent an image of Sarah naked to the friend who had tucked her into bed, boasting of his sexual prowess.
The friend replied: "How has she got there?"
Sarah woke up the next morning to her and Goodwin having sex, which she stopped. Shortly afterwards she had a flashback of the night before, of her screaming while he raped her.
She had no memory of how her stomach had come to be covered in scratches, or the red hand-shaped welts that stayed on her body for two days. Walking from his room, she video-called her sister. Sarah said: “She saw me: I was in a state and confused and trying to come to terms with what had happened. I was in a lot of pain that day."
Later he came to collect his dressing gown and tried to give her a hug but she recoiled and explained why. He told Sarah, 'I really respect women' and begged her not to go to the police.
She agreed not to, wanting to believe it was a drunken mistake. When she heard Claire’s story the following week, she could no longer stay quiet.
Three days after raping Sarah, Goodwin had his eyes on a new victim, Claire.
Claire was feeling upset about another boy who was not interested in having a relationship with her. Goodwin gave her his coat to comfort her and then started pouring her strong measures of peach schnapps and lemonade.
Claire said she was getting “to the point where I couldn’t stand without leaning on something”, and was sick.
They went inside with a group of other students. Claire told The Times : “I was more trusting of him because I was in a group setting and essentially in my own home.”
He managed to get her alone and repeatedly put his hands down the back of her tracksuit trousers and touched her genitals, even though she said no and moved them away. She said: "He kept saying sorry but carrying on. He would play Mr Nice Guy."
After her final rejection, he took out his penis, grabbed her hand and made her touch it. Claire confided in the managers of the student accommodation and said she felt unsafe around Goodwin.
Later that evening Sarah spoke to reception and described what had happened three days earlier.
Within a week the police had been called and Goodwin arrested. Claire said: “There wasn’t any communication beforehand of what [we] might like. He just took what he wanted.”
Both women had no idea just eight months earlier Goodwin had been arrested for brutally raping and throttling another student in Manchester.
The student met Goodwin in a nightclub in central Manchester and consented to sex at first but said it quickly became violent against her will. Goodwin began to throttle her, hit her hard across the face repeatedly, called her a s**t and ignored her shouts of “no”.
The student told the police what happened and said Goodwin was arrested and interviewed the next day. He was bailed and then released under investigation without charge.
Sarah claims the decision not to remand him immediately was a failing by Greater Manchester Police.
She told The Times: "Why did it take three victims for him to be remanded? Why wasn’t he remanded immediately? I think there are definitely failings in the handling of the Manchester case."
Claire added: "Why do there have to be more victims for it actually to get to court?"
Goodwin pleaded not guilty, and Claire and Sarah said being interrogated was "distressing". Claire said she was grilled for two hours and repeatedly told she had made up the story to win favour with the boy who had rejected her previously.
She said: "It was very distressing. At the break I went into the toilet and just cried. It was just awful. She made me feel like I was in the wrong.”
In Sarah’s case, Goodwin’s barrister argued that she was motivated by jealousy of his girlfriend. She said: “I feel like that’s a huge failing [of the system], because that’s something that’s going to stick with me. I’m never going to forget that.
"It felt like I was being manipulated by him through the courts. How does that help rape culture in any way to say I was a jealous girl trying to ruin a man’s life?"
Sarah is still trying to come to terms with the impact of Goodwin’s actions. She explained how she now has a boyfriend but it had been challenging.
She told The Times : “It’s had a massive impact on our relationship, because I had to say to him from the get-go that sometimes when we have sex I might cry or I might have a panic attack. And it has happened a few times.”
Sarah added she is terrified of getting drunk with people she does not know. She said: "I lost a year of my life when I wasn’t me. I just shut down for a year.”
Goodwin was told by a judge to expect “a lengthy period of imprisonment” and was remanded into custody to await sentencing this month.
