'She was City, I'd be United - I'd go in goal and she'd trip me up'

MUM'S HEARTBREAKING MEMORIES AT INQUEST OF 'LOVELY' DAUGHTER MURDERED BY CONVICTED RAPIST

- DAMON WILKINSON

THE mum of a vulnerable student who was brutally murdered by a convicted rapist has told how she carries a picture of her daughter with her every day.

An inquest heard Elizabeth McCann, 26, was plied with booze before being raped and strangled to death by fellow student Simon Goold.

Goold, then 52, pleaded guilty to murdering her on the second day of a trial in February 2023 and was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 35 years.

He had previously been convicted of rape, sexual assault and wounding in relation to an attack on a neighbour in Lancashire in 2010, the inquest heard.

Goold was released from prison in April 2019 and was on life licence and the sex offenders register when he met Ms McCann, of Dukinfield, at the Health and Wellbeing college run by Pennine Care NHS Trust in Ashtonunder-Lyne.

After messaging her on Facebook on August 24, 2022, he met her for a drink at the Star Inn pub on Old Street in Ashton before buying her several rounds of double vodka and coke and numerous shots of Sambuca. Ms McCann, who had mental health issues, was on medication and rarely drank alcohol, was seen falling over and being physically sick.

When bar staff refused to serve him any more drinks, he took her back to his flat at a B&B on Manchester Road in a taxi - sexually assaulting her during the journey.

Neighbours then heard shouts and screams for around 25 minutes.