Dating app rapist who staged death and fled to Spain brought to justice - with help from tip-off to Sky News

A rapist who staged his own death and fled the UK has been brought to justice - with help from a tip-off sent to Sky News.

James Clacher, 57, has been found guilty of the violent rape of two women following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow. The former gym boss disappeared in May 2022 while facing the charges.

Jurors heard how he abandoned his Suzuki Swift at the Loch Long car park and picnic area in Argyll and Bute, and left a suicide note intimating he intended to take his own life. He blamed his first victim, stating that she "will never stop until I'm dead or I'm in prison".

Read more: How dating app rapist forged a new identity in Spain In November 2023, Sky News received a tip-off from a reader in response to a Police Scotland appeal in the hunt for Clacher. The information passed on to the force pinpointed the fugitive's location to the southern Spanish town of Nerja, right down to the Time Sport gym he frequented.

Six months later, and almost two years to the day he vanished, Clacher was arrested by the Spanish Civil Guard while working out on a beach in the Costa del Sol town. He reportedly told a police officer on his extradition flight back to Scotland that he "survived on berries and puddle water" in the wild while initially on the run.

Clacher's first victim wished to thank the Sky News reader for coming forward with the information that led to his capture. She said: "I am extremely grateful that they were brave enough to come forward because that must have been extremely daunting for them.

"This is what I've dreamed of. I knew that he wasn't dead.

I did everything in my power, I made it my life's mission to ensure that he was found. "This meant everything to me, to know that he was captured and couldn't hurt anyone else.

"It was the most powerful thing ever, for me, when I heard that he was caught." Sky News visited Nerja ahead of Clacher's trial. Clacher, who went by the alias "Johnny Wilson.