“Do you recognise this guy?” I ask a Costa del Sol cafe owner as I show him an image of a bald, bearded bodybuilder from Scotland.

He raises his eyebrows and looks back with suspicion.

“I think he sometimes came for coffee,” he replies in broken English before the conversation is quickly shut down.

The bodybuilder is a familiar face in this part of the world – he lived here in the Spanish seaside town of Nerja for almost two years.

He is the fitness-fanatic, social butterfly expat Johnny Wilson. But the truth is, Johnny doesn’t exist.

The man behind the made-up name is the violent rapist James Clacher, who faked his own death in Scotland and set up a new life in Spain.

Nerja’s community feels bruised and conned by a serial sex offender who lived under their noses, undetected for so long.

The fake death

At the time of his disappearance in May 2022, Clacher was under investigation for two separate rapes of women he had met on dating app Tinder in 2019 and Bumble in 2020.

As police worked to put all the pieces of the puzzle together, a missing person poster was issued, describing Clacher as an athletic man who drives a Suzuki Swift.

It warned members of the public not to approach him.

Detectives had earlier discovered his car dumped next to Loch Long in Argyll and Bute. A suicide note was left in the vehicle, and messages had been sent suggesting he was no longer alive.

It had the look and feel of a suicide.

It was the perfect rural setting, with the rolling hills and very few people around, where a conman could slip away and hope to never be seen again.

The double life

Nerja is a small town with a population of around 22,000. It sits an hour’s drive from Malaga.

Off the beaten track, it’s tucked away at the foot of stunning mountain ranges and has the feel of a more authentic Spanish experience compared to its rivals like Marbella along the coast.

Accents on its beaches are from elsewhere in Spain and continental Europe, rather than a ‘Brits abroad’ vibe.

To learn how Clacher could slip into this community and create a bogus new identity while being a wanted man, I visit Nerja’s gym.

Workers tell me he trained there every day and describe a “nice man” who was perfectly pleasant, put people at ease and fitted right in.

I am pointed in the direction of a man called Matt, a British expat.

The pair became friends not long after “Johnny” arrived in Nerja. The relationship began with Johnny touting himself as a so-called nutritionist.

“He came highly recommended,” Matt says. “He was giving me nutritional help, and he said he was in the parachute regiment for ten years and came to Spain for a new start.

“He was a very, very nice guy, very charming, I became quite good friends with him. He invited me hiking with him, he invited me round to his house to eat.”

Asked if any of his new friend’s behaviour was suspicious, Matt says: “He gave no hint whatsoever. But looking back, whenever he sent a picture, he would never have his face visible.

“He was very careful about pictures. Whenever he took a picture, he obviously knew that he was being hunted, and he had to lay low, so he never showed his face.

“I only have one picture of him facing away from me looking up a mountain.”

Several people say Johnny had entered an 18-month relationship with a local woman who had no idea about his real identity or the sexual crimes he had committed on vulnerable women.

She is said to be traumatised by how events unfolded.

‘Johnny the gardener’

I get a tip off that Johnny was employed as a gardener at a local residential complex, and we’re told to speak to a man called Megel.

As he emerges from behind the shutters of a pool bar, Megel shakes his head and speaks to other guests in Spanish when I mention ‘Johnny the gardener’.

The atmosphere changes, and those present close ranks.

A member of staff confirms Johnny’s role on site before we are ushered off the premises.

Elsewhere, we discover he earned cash in hand running yoga classes on the beach in an attempt to stay off the books.

“This is the best place to be no one,” says local newspaper journalist Eugenio Cabezas, who has worked here for 20 years.

“If you have committed a crime, you can live here and nobody knows you. It is a good place to disappear.”

The tip-off

The Costa Del Sol has had a reputation over the years as somewhere big British crime bosses would come to hide.

James Clacher was no mafia gangster, but he played the system in Scotland and Spain.

That was until an anonymous person sent an email to Sky News with the title “James Clacher”.

The message, sent on 27 November 2023 at 11.16am, talked about reading news articles on the case.

It stated: “We believe we have seen this man in Nerja… he introduced himself as Jimmy, was Scottish and fit the description.”

The tip-off revealed conversations they had in the local gym and a timeline of three separate encounters or interactions over the space of almost a year.

The police investigation, which had come to a dead end, suddenly had its biggest lead yet.

The UK’s National Crime Agency, along with Spain’s Guardia Civil, went undercover and found their man.

They swooped while Clacher was hanging upside down on gym equipment on the very beach he had created a ‘safe space’ as a yoga instructor.

The moment was captured in dramatic body-cam footage by the Spanish police as the fugitive was tackled to the ground and led off in handcuffs.

Clacher was detained and eventually extradited back to Scotland.

‘He was a complete fantasist’

Matt, the man who thought he was friends with Johnny, speaks of his horror at learning his friendship was a lie.

“I was completely shocked. Completely stunned. I just couldn’t believe it”, he says.

“Being fooled like that by someone, it wasn’t just me. He fooled a lot of people here in Spain as well.

“I had a narrow escape. I am relieved I am away from that situation. He was a complete fantasist.”

The wider expat community in Nerja is shaken.

Pub landlady Cathy, who has lived here for 40 years, says the story was the talk of the town.

“People were stunned and surprised that this happened in our local community,” she says.

“Somebody who had obviously been living here with us which we had no idea about.

“We don’t have that very much here at all. It’s a very nice, safe, good area of Spain to be in.”

Clacher was detained in May 2024. He denied any wrongdoing when his trial began this August, but was found guilty by a jury.

During his trial, jurors heard how he was “very friendly and chatty” on his extradition flight back to Scotland.

He was said to have discussed how he staged his own death and told of how he “survived on berries and puddle water” while initially on the run.

Clacher claimed to have travelled from Loch Long to Inverness, then down the east coast of Scotland.

He was then said to have made his way to England before hiding in a truck to get into France.

Once in France, he then said he got his hands on a bike and cycled to Spain.

The Police Scotland officer Clacher spoke to on the flight home told the jury that Clacher revealed he had been fearful his face was becoming known locally in Nerja, so he considered building a kayak that he would paddle to Morocco.

Angela Rayner has admitted she did not pay the right amount of stamp duty on the purchase of her second home and has referred herself to the independent adviser on ministerial standards. 

Speaking to Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, the deputy prime minister became tearful as she claimed she received incorrect tax advice and spoke to her family about “packing it all in”.

Ms Rayner, who is also the housing secretary, has been under scrutiny after a report in The Daily Telegraph claimed she avoided £40,000 in stamp duty on a flat in Hove by removing her name from the deeds of another property in Greater Manchester.

In a lengthy statement released today, she said it was a “complex living arrangement” as her first home was sold to a trust following her divorce to provide stability for her teenage son, who has lifelong disabilities and is the sole beneficiary of the trust.

She said initial legal advice was that the standard rate of stamp duty applied but following media reports she sought expert counsel who said more tax is due.

She added that these matters were confidential but she applied to a court yesterday to get this lifted in the interests of public transparency.

In a subsequent interview with Beth Rigby, a visibly upset Ms Rayner said: “I’ve been in shock, really, because I thought I’d done everything properly, and I relied on the advice that I received and I’m devastated because I’ve always upheld the rules and always have felt proud to do that.

“That it is devastating for me and the fact that the reason why those confidential clauses were in place was to protect my son, who, through no fault of his own, he’s vulnerable, he’s got this life changing, lifelong conditions and I don’t want him or anything to do with his day-to-day life, to be subjected to that level of scrutiny.”

Asked if she thought about quitting rather than disclose the details about her son, the cabinet minister added: “I spoke to my family about it. I spoke to my ex-husband, who has been an incredibly supportive person because he knows that all I’ve done is try and support my family and help them.”

PM backs Rayner

The statement dropped shortly before the first PMQs following the summer recess. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Sir Keir Starmer should fire his deputy.

“If he had backbone, he would sack her,” she said.

However Sir Keir defended Ms Rayner, saying he is “very proud to sit alongside” her.

“She has explained her personal circumstances in detail. She’s gone over and above in setting out the details, including yesterday afternoon asking a court to lift a confidentiality order in relation to her own son.”

He added: “I am very proud to sit alongside a deputy prime minister who is building 1.5m homes, who is bringing the biggest upgrade to workers rights in a generation, and has come from a working class background to become deputy prime minister of this country.”

Watch and listen to the full Electoral Dysfunction interview on Wednesday afternoon – www.podfollow.com/electoraldysfunction

The mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey is calling on the government to introduce a ban on mobile phones in schools – a move she says will not only safeguard children, but also improve their behaviour and engagement in class.

In February 2023, Brianna, 16, was stabbed to death by two 15-year-olds after being lured to a park in Warrington.

In the lead-up to the attack, her killers had spent time on the dark web. At the same time, Brianna was also trapped online, struggling with a phone addiction.

Her mother Esther Ghey’s Phone Free Education campaign is driven by her personal experiences as a parent and the impact Brianna’s phone use had on her education.

“All the arguments that me and Brianna had were down to her phone use,” Esther said.

“But even in school, she had issues and I used to have phone calls from the school saying that Brianna wouldn’t put her phone away.”

Brianna, who was transgender, struggled with an eating disorder and also self-harmed.

Her mother says the constant time she spent online exacerbated those issues, while impacting her behaviour at school, where she had 120 safeguarding logs and 116 behaviour incidents recorded by her teachers.

“It was so difficult as a parent, because I felt in one way that I was failing and then in another way, and this is really difficult for me to speak about, I was so annoyed with Brianna,” she recalled.

“I thought, why can’t you just go to school, get your head down and just focus on your education, because this is important.

“Only now, after two years of being immersed in this world, do I realise that actually, it’s so much harder than that.”

Research by the Children’s Commission has shown that 79% of secondary schools are still allowing pupils to bring their mobile phones into school, and even into classrooms.

How phone ban is working at Brianna’s old school

Esther is campaigning for government guidance on phones to become statutory, with funding also set aside for the equipment to help schools implement the ban, arguing the lack of legislation is “setting children up to fail”.

At Birchwood Community High School in Warrington, where Brianna was a pupil, they introduced a ban on phones last September.

At the beginning of the day, pupils turn off their phones and place them in pouches, which are locked. At the end of the school day, the pouches are then unlocked.

The headteacher, Emma Mills, said introducing these measures has come with several benefits.

“It’s had an impact in all areas of school, and it’s actually had a really positive impact in ways that I didn’t foresee,” said Ms Mills.

“Attendance has improved this year. In terms of behaviour, behaviour has improved. We’ve had no permanent exclusions this year in school, which is actually the first time since I’ve been headteacher in six years, there’s been no permanent exclusion.”

This summer, the school also saw its best-ever GCSE results in the core subjects of Science, maths, and English.

‘They can live without their phones’

For Ms Mills, another significant change has been the atmosphere in the school.

“They’re not as worried, they’re not as distracted,” Ms Mills said.

“They’ve realised that they can live without their phones. Something else we’ve really noticed is that it’s a bit louder in school at breaks and lunch times. It’s because they’re talking more, they’re interacting more, and they’re communicating more.”

The positive impact of a ban at Brianna’s old school has served as encouragement to Esther, who has written an open letter addressed to Sir Keir Starmer and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, asking for government support.

Read more:
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High-profile signatories include the actress Kate Winslet, as well as actor and film producer Stephen Graham.

For Esther, who will deliver the letter to 10 Downing Street next month, the campaign is not just Brianna’s legacy, but also creating societal change.

“I think it’s important that we teach young people to live in the real world,” she said.

“It’s going to impact society at one point and I think this small amount of investment in students now will have a massive impact in the future.”