A woman has denied helping her boyfriend kill a man she met on Tinder with whom she had a one-night-stand.
Rachel Fulstow, 37, is accused of helping her boyfriend, Michael Hillier, 39, murder Liam Smith by luring him from his home in Wigan and dousing him in acid before shooting him in the face.
Fulstow told a trial at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester that she did not help her partner plot Mr Smith’s murder following their Tinder date in 2019.
She claimed to have been unaware that Hillier was planning to kill the father-of-two until after he turned up at her home following the fatal attack.
Hillier admitted to killing Mr Smith, who was found dead outside his home in Wigan, but denied murder.
The court heard on Thursday, August 3, that Fulstow had a one-night stand with Mr Smith at a York hotel following a date in the city in September 2019.
Giving evidence from the witness box at the trial, she said they had got drunk and had sex but alleged the encounter was non-consensual.
The jury heard that Hillier was “led to believe” the victim had raped his girlfriend – whom he had met a year after their date – following their meet-up.
He admitted to manslaughter but denied murdering the dad, with Fulstow denying any part in the killing.
Michael Hayton KC, defending, asked her why she went for lunch with Mr Smith the next day, and she said she did not regard the episode as “rape”.
While she said the encounter was non-consensual, she said rape was “not the word I have used or ever used”, adding that during their lunch, she accepted an apology from Mr Smith, and they “carried on”.
She met Hillier 15 months later on the dating app Hinge, and they started a relationship, with Fulstow saying her boyfriend was verbally abusive, mentally unwell, unpredictable, and a heavy diazepam user.
She added that he had kept bringing up her one-night-stand with Mr Smith but did not know he was planning to harm him.
Mr Hayton told the court it was known that she “did not contact the police to tell them about the violence Mr Smith had been subject to after Hillier had turned up at her home.
She said she was “terrified” of telling the police and “petrified” of Hillier.
The trial was adjourned and will continue this morning (Friday, August 4).
