THIS is the dramatic moment a British “Tinder rapist who attacked two dates” is approached by police on a Costa del Sol beach during a workout.
Fugitive James Clacher, 55, was hanging upside down from a rope during a punitive force training routine when he was attacked by two plainclothes police officers posing as tourists.
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Video footage showed a police officer in a sun hat running towards Clacher as a female officer approached him from behind in Nerja, east of Malaga, Spain.
Two more colleagues arrived seconds later to help pin the Scot to the sand before handcuffing his hands behind his back and dragging him away from the beach.
Detectives allowed him to cover his tattooed bare chest with a T-shirt before taking him to a police station, where his fingerprints were taken and his photo was taken.
The Spanish Civil Guard today released the first images from the high-profile arrest, revealing that Clacher’s obsession with keeping fit led to his downfall on the Costa Del Sol.
The arrest took place on May 21, but Spanish detectives have not yet made any official comment or released images from the day they detained the fugitive.
The Scot was due to stand trial after being accused of attacking two women he met on Tinder.
He would face allegations that he raped a woman in a flat in Troon in August 2019 and that he committed a further attack on a woman in a flat in Gorbals, Glasgow, in September 2020.
However, he faked his disappearance in a Scottish lake two years ago before running away.
The gym boss was last seen in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, on May 30, 2022 and was reported missing after his clothes and his Suzuki Swift car were found in Loch Long car park in Arrochar, Argyll, the following day.
Revealing that he was found and detained in Spain, a Police Scotland spokesperson said earlier this year: “A 55-year-old man was arrested on an international arrest warrant in Spain on Tuesday 21 May.
“We are in contact with partner agencies and he will be subject to extradition proceedings.”
The arrest was carried out by the Civil Guard’s UCO centralized fugitive unit, which in September 2022 arrested UK-born alleged gangster Johnny Morrissey and his wife Nicola.
A spokesman for the police force said today in his first comments on the aptly named Operation Clacher: “The operation began when Britain’s National Crime Agency received an anonymous tip saying he might be living in Nerja and immediately made contact with the UCO of the Civil Guard. unit.
“This information, together with other data about the fugitive that indicated that his life was closely linked to sport, allowed the agents to track him to that city.
“They discovered that he was well integrated into the sports community and was using a false identity.
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“After confirming his identity through discreet surveillance, he was arrested while practicing gymnastics in a recreational area on Nerja beach.
“This individual, described as dangerous by Scottish Police, has been accused of sexually assaulting two women he met through a dating app.”
The spokesperson added that the trial was suspended while the search for Clacher began.
“Police Scotland later determined it was not an involuntary disappearance and he fled to avoid arrest,” they added.
It was not clear today whether Clacher is opposed to extradition or whether he has agreed to be taken back to the UK so he can stand trial.
He has already appeared before a judge at the Spanish Audiencia National court in Madrid, which deals with extraditions.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
