An accused rapist faked his own death and went on the run for two years, a court has heard.
James Clacher, 57, hid in the wild, surviving on berries and puddle water, before fleeing to Spain, the High Court in Glasgow was told.
He is on trial there accused of raping two women, the first in Troon, South Ayrshire, in 2019 and the second in Glasgow in 2020.
Jurors were told the former gym boss was reported missing while facing court proceedings in May 2022.
His car was found abandoned in in Argyll and Bute with a suicide note in the back, along with cut up bank cards, Sergeant Craig Brown told the court.
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In the note, Clacher said he was ‘ending’ things because of the ‘pain and suffering’ caused to his family, jurors heard.
He blamed the first complainant, accusing her of refusing to stop ‘until I’m dead or I’m in prison’, Sky News reports.
A manhunt was launched to locate him, with detectives believing him to be hiding out in the hills near his abandoned car.
Jurors were shown footage of his eventual arrest in Nerja, Spain, last year.
Detective Constable Jamie Crossan told jurors he chatted with Clacher on the flight back to Scotland.
He said they ‘discussed how he staged his own death’ and told the court Clacher recounted how he ‘survived on berries and puddle water’ during his early days at large.
DC Crossan said Clacher admitted travelling first to Inverness, then down the east of Scotland, through England and then over to France in the back of a lorry.
He was then said to have cycled to Spain where he ‘embedded himself in the community’ in Nerja.
The detective said Clacher told him he considered building a kayak to take him to Morocco when he started fearing his face was becoming known.
Jurors heard he vanished after learning he was to be interviewed in relation to two further sex assault charges in addition to the rape allegations.
Two other women claim he touched them inappropriately and without their consent at Church Gym Wellness and Fitness Centre in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire.
Clacher has lodged a special defence to the rape charges, claiming any sex was consensual.
His trial continues.
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