Dramatic video shows moment British Tinder rape suspect is arrested after he faked his death and went on the run
This is the dramatic moment a fugitive rape suspect was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two women he met on the dating app Tinder — two years after he faked his death and went on the run.
James Clacher, 55, was hanging upside down from public gym equipment on a Costa del Sol beach in Spain when two undercover police officers posing as tourists swooped in on him.
Newly released video footage showed one plain-clothed male cop running towards Clacher—- who feigned his disappearance in Scotland before going on the run — as a female police officer approached him from behind.
Detectives can be seen allowing him to put on a T-shirt before escorting him to a police station where he was fingerprinted and had his mugshot taken.
Spain’s Civil Guard today released the first footage of the May 21 arrest as they revealed how authorities tracked him down.
“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,” a Police Scotland spokesman said.
“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.
“They discovered he was well integrated into the sports community and was using a false identity.
“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.”
Clacher was due to stand trial over allegations that he raped a woman at an apartment in southwest Scotland in August 2019, and that he carried out another attack on a woman at an apartment in Glasgow in September 2020, when he disappeared.
The gym boss was last seen in a town east of Glasgow on May 30, 2022 and was reported missing after his clothes and Suzuki Swift car were found in at a parking lot at Loch Long the next day.
“Police in Scotland subsequently determined it was not an involuntary disappearance and he had fled to avoid arrest,”police added.
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.”
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.
