Lizzie told her dad she’d call her mum and wish her goodnight. As she hung up, Simon Goold handed her another shot of Sambuca.
Other boozers noticed she was staggering around. When the pair got a taxi back to his house the driver asked if she was OK. She was anything but. Elizabeth McCann had been plied with alcohol by a dangerous criminal, a convicted rapist, and taken to a house she’d never been in before.
Neighbours heard her screams as for more than two hours she was sexually assaulted, raped and strangled before she was brutally killed.
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Her parents had warned her about a man called ‘Simon’, but little did she know about his terrifying past and the horrors he had in store for her that night.
In August last year, Elizabeth McCann, aged just 26, met him at the Star Inn where he bought her numerous rounds of double vodka and Coke, along with racks of shots. She was ‘out of it’ as he lured her back to his flat before subjecting her to the worst crimes imaginable.
The next day he called the police and confessed to having a ‘dead woman’ in his bedsit. He has now been jailed for life after eventually admitting to her murder.
The healing of a troubled young woman
For Elizabeth, affectionately called ‘Lizzie’ by those closest to her, life had dealt her a tough hand. She was abused by a family member at a young age, and she carried that trauma with her into adulthood.
Things improved when she gave birth to her daughter, but sadly she was taken into foster care. They kept in regular contact, writing letters to one another.
Despite suffering from some mental health issues for which she was prescribed the antidepressant Fluoxetine, Lizzie was determined to make the best life she could for herself.
She had joined the Health and Wellbeing College, in Ashton-under-Lyne, in 2019. It provides educational courses to help improve mental health and wellbeing, with many either being referred by other agencies or self referring.
However, no background checks or vetting are carried out on any of the students.
Throughout 2019 to 2020, Lizzie did a number of short courses, including a 2-week course in November called “Curtains to Sleepless Nights”. It was there she met a man called Simon.
Covid struck in early 2020, causing her attendance to drop, but she was due to restart some of her courses. In July last year, however, she reported having some thoughts of self-harm, but refrained from it, with the excitement of starting a new course the following month.
Enrolling for another 12 months, she was getting back into the swing of things again, taking courses in Silk painting, pet therapy and a coffee afternoon. This would be the last session she went to.
During that session, with other students, Lizzie started to cry. She told volunteer worker Gaynor Hammerton that she had felt attacked all her life. She was vulnerable, but doing everything she could to heal from her troubled past.
Days later, on August 24th, her parents dropped her off at a friend’s house. At the same time, Goold was searching her name on Facebook.
Since the removal of Covid restrictions, this was only the second time she had socialised without her family. She left her friend’s house sometime before 3pm, saying she was meeting another friend called ‘Brenda’ for a few drinks.
After a quick chat with her community engagement worker, she called Goold, after he had reached out to her asking if she was OK following the session earlier in the week.
During their 44-second call he was playing pool at the pub on Old Street, in Ashton-under-Lyne. She met him there.
Her dad, John, received a call just before 4pm, but when he answered, it was a man on the phone, who asked if Elizabeth could stay at his house.
Mr McCann insisted on talking to his daughter and, when she came on the phone, told her she could stay but, as was her habit, she should phone her mum to say goodnight and she shouldn’t be drinking when on her medication. Elizabeth said she knew, she promised to call mum that night and she was only drinking Coca-Cola.
She never made that phone call.
The disturbing past of the dangerous sexual predator
Simon Goold was harbouring a dark past. One that meant he posed a risk to others, especially women, when he had a drink, and one that saw his disturbing obsession manifest into something truly terrifying.
In October 2010, he invited a neighbour into his flat for a drink. Everything seemed fine, they had a cider and chatted.
Things took a turn when he leant in for a kiss. She refused.
Suddenly he grabbed a knife, plunging it into her leg and leaving a 5cm wound. He then held the knife up to her throat and kissed her, before telling her: “I want to kill you and bury you in the back garden.”
He then forced her to her knees and raped her before pushing her down onto all fours and sexually assaulting her. Despite her attempts to leave he held the knife up in front of her, threatening her. After two hours, she eventually managed to escape.
Goold was sentenced to an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for Public Protection with a minimum term of just under six years. He was then released and subject to licence for life whilst under supervision of the probation service.
He appeared to have made good progress after serving his time. He had developed ‘good insight’ into his lifestyle triggers. Probation had deemed him a medium risk of offending which was raised due to his use of alcohol and his sexual intentions if he was rejected.
There were also specific risks of him being ‘preoccupied with sexual violence’ which would be exacerbated if he was in contact with lone females, especially if he was feeling lonely.
And so it was, days after seeing her crying at the college session, he searched her name on Facebook. He’d also searched ‘rape’, ‘bondage’ and ‘biracial rough sex’.
He reached out to Elizabeth, asking if she was OK. She responded and they swapped numbers.
The persuasion and perversion of the sex-violence obsessed rapist
At the pub he plied her with booze, round after round, even shoving one shot towards her seconds after she’d downed another. He went back to the bar and was refused to be served by staff, as Elizabeth staggered around and was helped inside by members of the public.
He then led her to a nearby taxi rank, propping her up on a wall as they waited for a cab.
As it pulled up, the driver saw Goold groping her as she leant against a wall. She was just staring, her hands were by her side not reciprocating and she looked drunk, the driver said. Goold supported her as she got into the car. “Come on baby, get in,” he said, before telling the driver: “Don’t worry about her, she is just drunk, I’ve got money.”
Once they set off, Goold was kissing her neck as she stared straight. He then sexually assaulted her.
The driver asked if she was alright, but just got a mumble in response.
They arrived at his flat on Manchester Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, Goold helping her out of the cab. On the way inside she fell over, taking him with her.
After just 15 minutes he was taking explicit videos and images of her in various states of distress. Her hands were bound, she had an eye mask on and a t-shirt wrapped around her neck.
Goold can be heard saying: “Yeah, so tell me now, you wanted to be tied up didn’t you”. She replied “at first yeah”. He then asked, “yeah and you wanted to have your head, your mouth, your eyes gagged, and your hands tied behind your back didn’t you?”. To this, she replies, “yeah, but now I think about it, it’s really painful”.
He persisted, saying: “yeah but originally you wanted that, didn’t you?” She said “yeah” and he replied “right”. Just before the video ends, Elizabeth can be heard to say “I can’t move my arms properly”.
Despite him understanding she was no longer consenting to what he was doing to her, it did not stop him.
A number of other neighbours in the flats below heard a female voice screaming and shouting. Later, he texted one neighbour, who has learning difficulties, to come upstairs and help him.
He went up to the Goold’s flat where he saw Elizabeth, fully naked and unconscious on the floor at the side of the bed. He helped Goold lift her onto the bed, helped by another neighbour, with Goold telling them she passed out through drink.
The men left. In her unconscious state and completely alone, Goold took another picture of her before strangling her to death.
Goold's lies to the police and inevitable confession
As the next morning rolled around, Elizabeth was dead. Her blood was splattered around the room and Goold had just one option - to confess.
He dialled 999. He said he was reporting a crime and there was a dead woman in his bedsit. He said she had died from strangulation, that they were having sex and he had his hands around her throat, that it ‘sort of happened’ like that.
He was caught, handcuffed and asked again what had happened. He said, “well yeah there’s a dead woman in my bedsit” and “I’ve killed her.”
Goold then lied to the police, telling them that she not only consented but enjoyed it. He said they spoke about how much they enjoyed chatting together, that she came back to his flat for some tobacco and he gave her a glass of orange juice. It couldn’t have been further from the truth.
A pathologist who conducted a post mortem report found that Elizabeth had 46 separate internal and external injuries to her body. He said there were clear ligature marks around her neck that would have required ‘sustained pressure’ for a ‘considerable period’.
Goold was charged with her murder, as well as rape, sexual assault and two offences of assault by penetration. He pleaded not guilty, though he did admit an alternate offence of manslaughter.
However, on the second day of the trial, he changed his plea, instead admitting to all of the offences after becoming ‘overcome with remorse’ for Lizzie and her family.
In an emotional victim impact statement, penned by Lizzie’s mum, Debbie, she said: “Lizzie was always so trusting but she would often get let down and friends would use her when convenient. This never deterred her though, Lizzie always wanted to make new friends.
“She had been through trauma in her childhood when she was sexually abused by a family member and struggled with her mental health. She took fluoxetine for a number of years, sometimes she made silly decisions and would often run things by us.
“She was so excited when she found out she was expecting her daughter. Unfortunately her daughter has since been taken into foster care and she would keep in letter contact with her. Because of her medication Lizzie would rarely drink alcohol.
“She attended the Health and Wellbeing college and had done several courses. In a phone call she said she had met someone called Simon who was new to the college and we told her to be careful as we knew how trusting she was and how hurt she had been.
“We have seriously struggled to accept she is gone. I keep trying to ring her in an attempt to speak to her again. No parent should have to survive without their child. As her mother I felt her death was my responsibility as I felt I had to protect her.
“To hear she died from being strangled is awful as she never liked to have anything around her neck, she never wore necklaces or scarves. She also never wore a face mask during the coronavirus pandemic as it prevented her from breathing and made her have a panic attack. “She wore a badge so she wouldn’t have to wear one. This came from a fear from childhood when another child strangled her at school.
“Lizzie’s personality touched everyone who met her. She was the most amazing, beautiful daughter, sister, mother anyone could ever meet and we will always miss her.”
Now, her family can have some semblance of comfort in the fact that Goold will be in prison for life to serve a minimum term of 35 years.
As he jailed him, Judge Alan Conrad KC said: “You are a highly dangerous sexual predator who has an obsession with extreme violence. You derive sexual gratification from the infliction of violence and pain on women.”
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