Tinder ‘rapist’ arrested on Spanish beach while hanging upside down on gym hoops
This is the moment a British Tinder rape suspect was ambushed and arrested by police while he honed his muscles on a beach in Spain.
Footage shows two police officers, posing as tourists, grab a topless James Clacher as he’s hanging upside down on gym hoops in Nerja, on the Costa-del-Sol.
Seconds later two more officers appear and Clacher is pinned to the sand, handcuffed, then hauled away.
A second shot shows him being led down the street, at which point he’s got a t-shirt pulled over his arms.
The arrest happened on May 21 but Spain’s Civil Guard only released the footage today as they revealed Clacher’s keep-fit obsession proved his downfall.
The 55-year-old was due to stand trial in Scotland accused of attacking two women he met on Tinder.
It’s alleged he raped a woman at a Troon flat in August 2019, and that he carried out another attack on a woman at a flat in Gorbals, Glasgow in September 2020.
The gym boss was last seen in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, on May 30, 2022 and was reported missing after his clothes and Suzuki Swift car were found in Loch Long car park in Arrochar, Argyll the next day.
Revealing he had been found and held in Spain, a Police Scotland spokesman said earlier this year: ‘A 55-year-old man was arrested on an international arrest warrant in Spain on Tuesday, 21 May.
‘We are liaising with partner agencies, and he will be subject to extradition proceedings.’
The arrest was carried out by the Civil Guard’s centralised UCO fugitives unit, which in September 2022 arrested UK-born alleged gangster Johnny Morrissey and his wife Nicola.
It its first comments on the operation, the police force said today:’The operation began when Britain’s National Crime Agency received an anonymous tip-off saying he could be living in Nerja and immediately made contact with the Civil Guard’s UCO unit.
‘This information, together with other data about the fugitive which indicated his life was closely linked to sport, enabled officers to trace him to that town.
It said he they discovered he had become part of Nerja’s sports community and was using a false identity.
It added: ‘Once his identity had been confirmed following discreet surveillance, he was arrested while he practiced calisthenics in a recreational area of Nerja beach.
‘This individual, described as dangerous by Scottish Police, was accused of sexually assaulting two women he had met over a dating app.
‘His trial was suspended while the search for him began, as he had fled his country in 2022 when the authorities reported his car had been found by a lake in Scotland.
‘Police in Scotland subsequently determined it was not an involuntary disappearance and he had fled to avoid arrest.’
It was not immediately clear today if Clacher is opposing extradition or has agreed to be flown back to the UK so he can face trial.
He has already appeared before a judge at Spain’s Audiencia National court in Madrid which deals with extraditions.
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