A rapist who faked his own death and fled the UK has been jailed for eight years.
James Clacher, 57, was brought to justice with help from a tip-off sent to Sky News which led police to his hideaway in Spain.
Following his extradition back to Scotland, the former gym boss was last month found guilty of the violent rape of two women after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Clacher was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday.
He was handed a 10-year extended sentence, with eight years in jail and two years on licence once released back into the community.
Detective Inspector Bruce Fyfe told Sky News that the rapist went to “extraordinary lengths to evade justice”, adding: “He’s clearly a very manipulative and odious individual.”
During Clacher’s trial, the court heard how he disappeared in May 2022 while facing the two rape charges.
Student took his own life on graduation day after being mistakenly told he’d failed course
Britain’s asylum seeker capital – where the mood appears to be shifting
Glasgow’s ‘Argyle Street Ash’ wins Tree of the Year 2025 as wildcard entry
Jurors were told of 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”.
The woman later told Sky News: “It’s true, yes. I didn’t want him dead – I wanted him caught.”
Officers did not fall for Clacher’s fake suicide note and launched a major search, believing him to be wild camping in the surrounding hills.
In November 2023, Sky News received a tip-off from a reader in response to a Police Scotland appeal in the hunt for the wanted criminal.
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 after 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 initially, while on the run.
Read more: How dating app rapist forged a new identity in Spain
Sky News visited Nerja ahead of Clacher’s trial.
Clacher, who went by the alias “Johnny Wilson”, was said to have been in a relationship with a local woman, was employed as a gardener at a residential complex, and earned extra cash by running yoga classes on the beach.
The fugitive’s capture and extradition back to the UK in 2024 came following an investigation between Police Scotland, the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Civil Guard’s elite central operative unit (UCO).
DI Fyfe said Clacher’s disappearance caused “distress and discomfort” to his victims.
The detective noted how intelligence forms a “critical part” of every investigation and help from members of the public can help crack cases.
Highlighting the tip-off to Sky News, he said: “Clearly, that was the case on this occasion, and we were able to use that to work closely with our international law enforcement agencies, namely the National Crime Agency and the Spanish police authorities, and we were able to work together to extradite James Clacher and bring him back to stand trial.”
Follow our channel and never miss an update
Clacher, from North Lanarkshire, denied any wrongdoing during his trial and claimed any sex was consensual.
Jurors heard how he raped his first victim at her home in Troon, South Ayrshire, on 24 August 2019.
Giving evidence, the woman told of how she was attacked within 15 minutes of meeting Clacher for the first time.
The woman said moments after telling her Tinder date to “make himself comfortable” while she finished getting ready for their night out, she was pushed against a wall and brutally assaulted.
She was then further abused after being led upstairs while in a state of “shock”.
A second woman told of how she was raped at her flat in Glasgow on 4 September 2020.
The pair, who had matched on dating app Bumble, had earlier collected a takeaway from Nando’s before Clacher drove them to Irvine Beach in Ayrshire, where they ate in the car, talked, and took a walk on the beach.
They then returned to the woman’s house to watch a movie, where she was assaulted.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
During the trial, the court also heard evidence from two other women who claimed Clacher inappropriately touched them without their consent at Church Gym Wellness and Fitness Centre in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire.
Clacher went on the run after learning he was to be interviewed by police over the two historical sexual offence allegations, which were reported after the rape charges came to light.
