A woman forced to play dead so her ex would stop raping her has revealed her story to encourage others to seek justice.

Sarah Smith*, 41, was violently attacked by rapist James McNutt, 33, who she met on Tinder, until she pretended to be unresponsive.

After McNutt was this week jailed for 13 years for rape and controlling behaviour, Sarah has spoken out to show other victims support is available.

James McNutt was jailed for 13 years at Birmingham Crown Court on March 28 for rape and engaging in controlling behaviour (Picture: BPM)

She and McNutt met around a year ago on Tinder and she assumed she was safe as they shared mutual friends.


It wasn’t long before the pair started dating, but Sarah said he soon became ‘suffocating’ and her daughter didn’t trust him, choosing instead to stay with her grandmother when he would stay over.

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‘I told James that we needed to cool it because she didn’t accept him but he said I couldn’t give in to her controlling me like that and that if I did she’d keep doing it forever,’ Sarah said.



McNutt, of no fixed address, was physically violent and would regularly slap and beat Sarah, but also manipulated her, stealing her mobile phone so she couldn’t contact family or friends.

His frequent attacks landed him with a domestic violence prevention order but McNutt ignored it when he lured Sarah to meet him on the pretence of picking up some photographs last August.

When they met, he assaulted her, stole her handbag and later let himself into her home, where he raped her.

She explained: ‘He locked me in the house and, when I went to grab my phone, he went into a wild rage, saying I’d been cheating on him.

‘He beat me up badly, stamping over me, smashing a glass over my head and giving me a black eye. He stamped on my back so hard there was a footprint on it.

Sarah Smith* met McNutt on Tinder around a year ago (Picture: BPM)

‘He strangled me as he raped me. He put a pillow over my face, trying to smother me.

‘I had to play dead because it was the only way to make him stop. I thought that if he thought I was dead, he’d run off, which he did.

‘But then he came back again, ripped the pillow off and tried to wake me. Unfortunately, I started to cough so he knew I wasn’t dead.’

Sarah said a phone app that lets you send secret alerts to contacts if you’re in danger helped to save her life.

Several police forces in the UK recommend the Hollie Guard app to people who have been the victims of violence and are worried they could be threatened again.

To use it, you have to open the app so it runs in the background, for example before walking home alone or before going to meet someone.

Then if anything worrying does happen, all you need to do is shake the phone and it will subtly send details of your location and a record of what is happening to a phone number or numbers you previously set up.

McNutt was breaking a previous restraining order when he attacked Sarah (Picture: SWNS)

Sarah said police had told her to download Hollie Guard before she was raped.

After the attack, she said: ‘I started shaking my phone. He asked what I was doing and I told him, saying you need to go because they are going to be here in a minute.



‘To this, he said “you’re coming with me”. So I had to get dressed and walk out of the house.

‘Fortunately, there was a neighbour outside working on his car and I got free from his arm and ran.

‘The neighbour called the police.’

McNutt went on the run following the attack, and Sarah was given accommodation in a Women’s Aid refuge to keep her safe.

She said that when her rapist was jailed, she said she was ‘in shock’.

‘I feel I can get a bit of closure now he’s in jail,’ she said.

‘Looking back, there was so much stuff leading up to it, it was all there, so many worrying signs but I didn’t realise what the outcome would be.

‘I want to warn other people to spot the signs – and act on them straight away.’

*name has been changed to protect victim’s identity.

McNutt – who has previous convictions for domestic violence – admitted coercive control during the course of the trial but was found guilty of rape.

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