Moment British Tinder rape suspect arrested by police disguised as tourists while training on Spanish beach

Dramatic footage shows the moment a Lanarkshire fugitive wanted for rape was arrested by plainclothes police while exercising on a Spanish beach.

James Clacher, 55, is a suspect in a Tinder rape case after two women accused him of attacking them after meeting them on a dating site. Clacher disappeared in 2022 before he was due to appear in court – but was eventually caught by investigators.

The suspect, from Bellshill, near Glasgow, was hanging upside down from a rope as plainclothes police approached to arrest him. One officer ran towards Clacher while a female police officer approached from behind before two more plainclothes police arrived seconds later to pin the former gym owner to the sand.

After Clacher was handcuffed, investigators made him put on a T-shirt before he was taken to a police station where his fingerprints and mugshots were taken, GlasgowLive reported. The footage was released by Spain’s Guardia Civil, which revealed that Clacher’s fitness obsession was his undoing and led to his detention in the tourist resort of Nerja on the Costa del Sol, east of Malaga.

Clacher was arrested on May 21, but Spanish investigators have yet to make an official comment or release images from the day they arrested the fugitive. He was due to face allegations that he raped a woman in a flat in Troon in August 2019 and carried out another attack on a woman in a flat in Gorbals, Glasgow, in September 2020.

He was last seen in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, on May 30, 2022 and reported missing. A Police Scotland spokesman said earlier this year: “A 55-year-old man was arrested in Spain on Tuesday 21 May on an international arrest warrant. We are liaising with partner agencies and extradition proceedings are underway against him.” The arrest was carried out by the Guardia Civil’s centralised UCO unit, which arrested British-born suspected gangster Johnny Morrissey and his wife Nicola in September 2022.

A police spokesman today made a first comment on the operation to capture Clacher, aptly named Operation Clacher: “The operation began when the UK’s National Crime Agency received an anonymous tip-off that he might be in Nerja and immediately contacted the Guardia Civil’s UCO unit.

“This information, together with other details about the fugitive that indicated that his life was closely linked to sport, allowed the officers to track him down in this city. They found that he was well integrated into the sports community. After his identity was confirmed following discreet surveillance, he was arrested while he was doing gymnastics in a recreational area on the beach in Nerja.

“This individual, described by Scottish police as dangerous, has been accused of sexually assaulting two women he met on a dating app. His trial has been suspended while the search for him begins.” It was not immediately clear today whether Clacher is resisting extradition or has agreed to be flown back to the UK so he can face trial. He has already appeared before a judge at the Spanish Audiencia National court in Madrid, which deals with extraditions.