“Amy”—the name she was given to protect her identity—was 30 years old when she decided to tell the BBC everything.
She met Christopher Malcolm on Tinder in late August 2023. Their first date was a coffee and a walk because he didn’t drink. She remembers him as “charming and funny”. Within the first week, she had met his parents. A few months later, they were living together. By Christmas, they were engaged.
Malcolm began controlling every detail of her life: he forced her to leave social media and forbade her from speaking on the phone with her family when he was at home, because “he didn’t like her accent”. The physical violence came later, at first occasionally, then every other weekend. He abused her on several occasions. “You become immune because you understand that you can’t do anything”, she said. “You feel that if you tell someone, they’ll only tell you to leave him, but you aren’t in a position to leave”.
Meanwhile, four people close to Amy—without her knowing—gathered messages and photos of her injuries and handed them over to the Scottish police. Malcolm was arrested in September 2024, four weeks before the wedding. “I was weeks away from marrying a serial rapist”, she would recall after those close to her intervened. The conviction came soon after: 16 years in prison for crimes against Amy and three other women, some dating back to 2008.