James Clacher: Tinder rape victim arrested during her hunt for fugitive fake death attacker

A rape victim was arrested by police as she desperately tried to track down her Tinder attacker who faked his own death and fled the UK, Sky News can reveal.

Warning: This article contains details that some readers may find distressing.

“Elle”, who is retaining her legal right to anonymity, was molested within 15 minutes of meeting James Clacher for the first time.

Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Elle told of how she came “face-to-face with evil” as she described Clacher as a “monster”.

Clacher, 57, was last week – with help from a tip-off to Sky News – found guilty of the violent rape of Elle in 2019 and a second woman in 2020.

In May 2022, while waiting to stand trial, the former gym boss staged his own death and fled from Scotland to Spain in a bid to evade justice.

Five months later, Elle was arrested at her family home by uniformed officers and later charged in connection with offences under the Communications Act 2003.

The mother was detained in custody for several hours and appeared in court the following month, accused of harassing Clacher’s family.

When questioned by Sky News whether she did harass Clacher’s family, Elle denied the allegation, saying she was “absolutely desperate” for justice.

She said: “I was trying to find where my rapist was.

“I was trying to find where he was, and so I was contacting anybody that I thought might have an awareness of where he could be.”

During Clacher’s trial at the High Court in Glasgow, jurors heard how Elle had posted messages on Facebook and contacted his family and friends, accusing him of being a “rapist” and them of “supporting a rapist”.

It is understood the messages went as far back as November 2020, before he disappeared. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) later dropped the case.

Speaking about her treatment by Police Scotland, Elle said: “I think it is an utter disgrace what they did to me.”

Elle is now considering lodging a complaint.

She said: “I have something ongoing.”

When asked about Elle’s arrest in October 2022, Police Scotland confirmed she was charged in connection with offences under the Communications Act 2003 and a report was submitted to the procurator fiscal.

Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay, the MSP for West Scotland, provided support to Elle after she was arrested.

He told Sky News: “For a rape victim to be arrested, charged and threatened with criminal prosecution in connection with the fake disappearance of her attacker is shocking and concerning.

“When I first spoke with Elle, she was understandably worried and confused about the risk of prosecution.

“Having been proven to be entirely correct about this rapist’s disappearing act, she has shown incredible resilience to secure justice.

“I was happy to provide the Crown Office with these critical background details and was relieved when common sense prevailed, with the threat of prosecution being dropped.

“Her horrific ordeal is further evidence of how crime victims are so often badly treated by the Scottish justice system, contrary to the frequent PR platitudes of SNP politicians.”

Read more:
Tip-off to Sky News helped catch rapist
How rapist forged a new identity in Spain

Clacher raped Elle at her home in Troon, South Ayrshire, on 24 August 2019.

Elle 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 pushed upstairs while in a state of “shock”.

Elle said: “I don’t even know what was going through my mind – everything just left. I just remember shaking and crying and saying, ‘I don’t want to do this and I don’t like this’.

“And he just ignored me.”

Elle spoke to police following her attack, but did not make an official complaint until she discovered he had raped a second woman he had met on dating app Bumble in Glasgow in 2020.

Elle said she was forced to accept that Clacher was a “monster” who was “choosing to hurt women”.

She said: “Oh, he’s an absolute fiend. He’s a monster. I came face-to-face with evil that day, but it took me a long time to realise it.

“It wasn’t until I’d heard that he had done it to someone else that I really had to confront it.”

Clacher disappeared while facing the two rape charges. He vanished on the day he was due to be interviewed by police over two new historical sex offence allegations.

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.

Clacher blamed Elle, stating that she “will never stop until I’m dead, or I’m in prison”.

Elle said: “It’s true, yes. I didn’t want him dead – I wanted him caught.”

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.

On his fake suicide, Elle said: “I didn’t believe that he was dead at all.

“I just believe that he was too arrogant and too cocky to think that he would ever be caught.”

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.

Elle said she “wasn’t really surprised” Clacher managed to embed himself in the Nerja community “because he does have that charm”.

On his arrest abroad, Elle said: “It was a huge relief because those two years he was missing all I could think was, ‘who else has he hurt?’

“That was one of the strongest motivations for me to have him found.”

Discussing how the attack has changed her life, Elle said: “It’s affected my life in so many ways.”

The anxious mother has erected a 6ft fence and gate around her house and has installed CCTV. She also remains on medication to help stave off panic attacks.

She added: “I barely leave my house. And it’s made some relationships difficult.”

While giving evidence at Clacher’s trial, Elle told jurors that she did not flee from her home following the rape attack in fear her “son might not have a mother right now”.

She told Sky News there was a “possibility” she could have been murdered.

Elle does not believe she is Clacher’s first victim and suspects there are others out there.

She said: “It was so quick, it was something that I knew that this was something he was extremely proficient in.”

When asked about how she can move on from the brutal attack, Elle said: “I don’t know yet. I’m still trying to work through that.”

Clacher is due to be sentenced next month.