TERRIFIED and hungry, Sarah Smith lay on the floor of a cramped bathroom for days, waiting for her cruel captor to open the padlocked door.
It was the most chilling moment of her ten-year ordeal at the hands of ‘ultimate con man’ Robert Hendy-Freegard, who brainwashed, starved and abused her while stealing her family’s fortune to spend on cars, watches and designer gear.
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The farmer’s daughter, from Kent, was one of the many victims of the twisted ‘Puppet Master’ – who convinced them he was an MI5 agent being hunted by the IRA and that their own lives were in danger, swindling almost £1 million from them in the process.
Sarah was torn away from college, isolated from friends and family, forced to change her identity and hidden in ‘safe houses’ around the country – even agreeing to have sex with Freegard in a bid for better treatment from him.
At one point the fraudster, who was jailed in 2005 but released three years later, was controlling at least five women, spinning each the ‘secret agent’ tale while milking them for cash.
The incredible story is unravelled in new Netflix documentary The Puppet Master, which features testimony from victims and the police officer who helped snare Freegard and bring him to justice.
James Norton is set to play the career criminal in the upcoming film Freegard, opposite Gemma Arterton as one of the many women who fell under his spell.
‘It still haunts me – I felt I’d failed everyone’
Sarah, 52, was rescued and reunited with her family after Freegard’s arrest in 2002 and tells The Sun she still has flashbacks of her decade-long ordeal.
“Even after 20 years, it haunts me at times,” she says. “You hear a piece of music, especially Duran Duran’s Ordinary World – which Rob played on a loop in the car – and you’re right back where you were.
“You have a level of guilt that you failed your family, even though it wasn’t your choice.”
When she first met Freegard in 1993, Sarah was in her final year at Harper Adams agricultural college in Shropshire. She shared a house with five other students, including boyfriend John Atkinson.
Freegard, a barman in a nearby pub, convinced John he was an undercover agent working with MI5 and began to ‘train’ him as a recruit.
“I didn’t particularly like him,” says Sarah. “He was smarmy and a bit too keen to get into the group, but my housemate Maria Hendy really liked him, so I went with it.”
Puppet master pulled strings with warped mind games
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After weeks of ‘training’, Freegard convinced John that one of their housemates was a terrorist, before urging him to go on the run with Sarah and Maria.
To persuade the girls without blowing his ‘cover’, John initially told the girls he had terminal cancer and wanted to go on a road trip to fulfil his ‘bucket list’.
But after a couple of weeks they were also spun the MI5 story.
“Rob said the IRA were tracking us and we needed to keep moving and go off-grid,” says Sarah.
“The worst thing was not being able to see my family and friends. I knew they would worry because nobody had mobile phones then.”
Freegard, who was in a relationship with Maria, used mindgames to control all three of the group – telling them loved ones would be in danger if they made contact.
“It’s hard to explain how he came to control us all but coercive control is insidious. It creeps up on you,” says Sarah.
“He removed all points of contact and the only person I was allowed to talk to was Rob.
“He was constantly reinforcing the lies and, if we asked questions, we were told we were causing problems with his bosses. Eventually we weren’t allowed to speak at all.”
‘I thought I’d never see my family again’
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Freegard starved John and Sarah, making them sleep on the floor in unfurnished rooms.
“Rob said his ‘bosses’ felt I needed bringing down to reality so he made me work in a fish and chip shop until four in the morning and then sleep on the floor,” she says.
“We couldn’t eat until he and Maria had eaten, we couldn’t wash until they had a shower because we would make it ‘dirty’ for them.”
He forced Sarah to ring her parents, begging to release her inheritance money.
Despite her father growing suspicious and desperately trying to persuade her to come home, they eventually stumped up over £200,000 after her incessant calls began to impact her mothers’ mental health.
“One of my lowest points was being made to beg my parents for cash,” she says.
“They had problems with their business and were laying off staff the same day. Eventually they just said: ‘Enough, we can’t deal with this. Don’t phone again.’
“I honestly thought I’d never see my family again.”
Locked in filthy bathroom with suicidal thoughts
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After a few months, the three friends were split up and Sarah was told John had moved to Manchester with a gay lover.
Rob continued to move Sarah around the country, at one point locking her in a tiny bathroom for three weeks, visiting every few days to give her a food parcel.
“It had small windows high up and just enough space to lie on the floor by the bath,” she recalls.
“It was a prison. I had burned every bridge with everybody that I love. If I’d had any way of attempting suicide I probably would have done at that point.
“Then one day Rob turned up and asked me if I’d like to be his girlfriend. Basically he wanted sex.
“If you’ve been deprived of food and freedom and any free will, the possibility, just the glimmer of hope you might be treated better, is worth a punt. Nothing to lose.”
A spider web of lies
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Over the next few years, Sarah was forced to sleep rough at Gatwick airport or in B&Bs while working in hotels, bars and cafes.
Her wages were paid into a bank account controlled by Freegard.
At the same time, he fathered two children with Maria – whom he physically abused, once punching her so hard she lost several teeth.
Incredibly, he also had several other ‘relationships’ on the go, including an engagement to American Kim Adams.
Freegard told Kim’s stepdad – a lottery winner – that she was training as an MI5 agent and asked for £61,000 to cover costs, but her parents alerted the FBI.
By this time, Scotland Yard were also investigating him after solicitor Caroline Cowper – with whom he had struck up a relationship – reported him for fraudulently taking money from her account.
Sarah’s dad Peter – who had been trying to track her down for 10 years – also handed his evidence over to the police.
‘My world turned upside down’
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Detective Bob Brandon spent months trying to find Freegard but says his frequent moves and lack of traceable spending meant it was “like chasing a ghost.”
The net finally closed in after Kim’s mum acted as bait, offering to give Freegard cash if he met her at Heathrow – where cops swooped and arrested him.
A key for a French hotel room was found in his pocket and, on investigation, the police found a stash of designer shoes and expensive watches, along with a locked case full of passports, credit cards and bank statements belonging to numerous female victims.
One London-based woman, Renata Kister, said Freegard had “borrowed” £200,000 from her and had persuaded her to take in a girl called Carrie – who police soon identified as Sarah.
When she finally learned the truth about Freegard’s deception, Sarah was overwhelmed.
“I had my world turned upside down and the floor ripped out from beneath me,” she says.
“I’d wasted everything, thrown away my career, family and friends for nothing.
“Everything that I’d dreaded had come true. I’d been living a lie, and he really was a fake. There are no words to describe just how annihilated I felt.”
Couldn’t go on date for 8 years after ordeal
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With nowhere to go, and nothing to her name, Sarah was hugely relieved when her family welcomed her back to the family home.
“My family were absolutely awesome,” she says. “After all I’d put them through, they wanted me back. Without them, I’d be in a very different state of mind.”
Having been conditioned to obey Freegard’s orders for a decade, Sarah found her newfound independence “really challenging”.
“My brother kindly let me stay in his house on the proviso that, every day, I had to do something that scared me, which was literally everything,” she says.
“Phoning friends, going where I wanted to and not having anybody tell me what to do was terrifying. It was like growing up again.
“It took eight years to consider going out on a date. It had a major impact on my confidence, which wasn’t brilliant before.”
After Freegard’s arrest several more victims were found and Sarah was elated when he was jailed for life, in 2005, for kidnap, deception and assault.
But in 2007, the court of appeal overturned the kidnap charge because the victims, although mentally entrapped, had not been physically detained. The sentence was shortened to nine years and Freegard was released a few months later.
‘It’s horrifying to think he’s still doing it’
SHOCKINGLY, The Pupper Master also includes a plea from desperate siblings Sophie and Jake Clifton, who haven’t seen mum Sandra for seven years after she fell for Freegard and fled the family home with him.
Sandra, 49, was a loving mum with a huge network of friends but after she began dating a man calling himself David – whom they later identified as Freegard – she became increasingly isolated.
His controlling behaviour, which included locking Jake out of the house and convincing Sophie her dad was evil, led both kids to leave home, before the couple vanished overnight in 2014.
At Sandra’s house, ex-husband Mark found a padlock on the outside of the bedroom door, newspaper covering the windows and unpaid bills, mortgages and car finance agreements.
Sandra, an only child, didn’t even resurface when both her beloved parents passed away and has only contacted friends when asking for money.
Concerned police even met with Sandra to warn her about his previous convictions, but she dismissed their fears.
Tracked down by the Sunday Times to a rubbish-strewn house in Berkshire, Hendy-Freegard denied controlling his partner and added: “It is with great sadness that Sandra is not allowed to live her life with who she loves and with who loves her.”
But Sophie says her mum had been “totally brainwashed”.
“My mum has been trained – controlled to do whatever Freegard wants her to say and do.”
Sarah – who met with the pair for the documentary – says everything she has heard followed a familiar pattern.
“It was a massively emotional meeting,” she says,
“It’s bad enough going through it as a young adult but for a child to endure the sort of treatment that I received, is terrible.
“It’s horrifying to think he’s still doing it and there will be others, besides Sandra.
“He doesn’t just target one person because it’s about control – the power and the money – and there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that he’s doing it again, to multiple people.”
Having escaped his clutches, brave survivor Sarah has a message for Sandra.
“No matter what Rob aka David has said to you, he is a liar and a conman and your family desperately want you back and love you,” she says.
“If you are visited by the police saying he is a convicted criminal who has manipulated and stolen from a lot of people, please listen to what they are saying.
“He is very convincing but craves the control and money, so beware what he makes you do. There is a good life to be had away from him. You just have to take the first steps.”
“I was devastated,” says Sarah. “He served less time than I did. Mine was a 10-year sentence and the treatment that he got in prison was far better than a lot of the treatment I received.
“I was horrified that they could be so short-sighted as to let him out because even the judge was convinced that he would do it again.”
Sarah has now moved on, with a job on the family farm and a happy marriage to Miles, her husband of seven years.
“It’s had a huge impact on my life,” she says. “But fortunately, I now work on the farm, I’m happily married and I have wonderful contact with my family so I feel very lucky.
“There are moments when it all comes back but, on the whole, I’d say you can come out the other side, be positive and happy and have a good life.”
The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman is available on Netflix now
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