A cannabis dealer—who described himself in court as a “knight in shining armour”—and his girlfriend have been convicted of murder after she claimed a man she had a one-night stand with had raped her.
Michael Hillier, 39, and Rachel Fulstow, 37, were both found guilty on Wednesday of the murder of 38-year-old Liam Smith, who was shot and then had sulphuric acid poured on him at his home in Wigan, Greater Manchester, on Nov. 24, 2022.
Fulstow was also found guilty of a charge of perverting the course of justice.
Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard Fulstow met Mr. Smith on the Tinder dating app and they had a one-night stand at a hotel in York in 2019.
Fulstow let met Hillier on another dating app and the pair began a relationship.
‘We Decided ... to go Down the Vigilante Route’
Giving evidence, Hillier said: “We decided jointly between the two of us that we would deal with the matter ourselves and seek justice ourselves and go down the vigilante route.”
Hillier told the court: “She (Fulstow) most definitely saw me as kind of like her knight in shining armour.”
He said on the day of the murder he travelled to Wigan from his home in Sheffield and said Fulstow packed him a lunchbox full of food, as well as diazepam and headache tablets.
Hillier had admitted manslaughter but denied murder, claiming that although he had converted a blank-firing gun he did not intend to kill Mr. Smith.
Hillier said: “I didn’t want to let Rachel down so I pulled the trigger.”
Giving evidence, Hillier claimed he called Mr. Smith a “vile, disgusting rapist” before shooting him.
Victim’s Mother Denies he was a Rapist
Outside court, Mr. Smith’s mother said: “He’s not a rapist.”Hillier told the jury he only found out Mr. Smith had been killed when he got back to Fulstow’s home in York—after setting on fire the Mitsubishi Shogun car he was driving—and he said he asked her if she was happy he had died.
He said: “She said ‘Of course I’m glad he’s died, who wouldn’t be after what he did to me’.”
Turning to Fulstow in the dock, Hillier added: “Remember saying that, Rachel?”
When she gave evidence, Fulstow said she had nothing to do with the plan to attack Mr. Smith and knew nothing about it until Hillier turned up at her home.
But prosecutor Jason Pitter KC cross examined her about a number of internet searches she had made on her computer.
Six months before the murder she admitted looking up the details of Mr. Smith’s company.
Mr. Pitter said: “Innocent searches, for your curiosity?”
“Yes,” she replied.
She also admitted searching for a Mitsubishi Shogun car and also searched for, “How long does it take a car to burn?”
Mr. Pitter said: “That’s quite a specific thing to look for? Innocent search? Just a coincidence?”
Hillier was ‘Alpha Male’
Fulstow described Hillier—who she found on the dating app Hinger—as an “alpha male” and admitted she felt he was her last chance of settling down and having children.Fulstow told the jury she and Mr. Smith had both been drunk and she went back to his hotel room and woke up to find him having sex with her.
She said she told him to stop, which he did, and she said she did not regard the encounter as rape and did not want to take her revenge.
Hillier’s barrister, Louise Blackwell, KC, suggested to Fulstow: “He was your knight in shining armour. Your protector.”
“No. These are his words,” replied Fulstow.
The pair will be sentenced on Thursday but face a mandatory life sentence.
