Dramatic footage has captured the moment James Clacher, a 55-year-old fugitive from Bellshill near Glasgow, was arrested by plain-clothes police while working out on a beach in Nerja, Spain. Clacher is wanted in connection with the alleged rape of two women he met through the dating app Tinder.
The arrest took place on May 21, but footage was only recently released by Spain's Civil Guard. Clacher was hanging upside down from a rope when officers approached him. One officer ran up to him while a female officer approached from behind, and two more officers arrived seconds later to pin him to the sand. After handcuffing him, detectives allowed him to put on a t-shirt before taking him to a police station.
Clacher was last seen in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, on May 30, 2022, and was reported missing. He was due to face allegations that he raped a woman at a flat in Troon in August 2019, and another attack at a flat in Gorbals, Glasgow, in September 2020. His trial was suspended while the search for him began.
Police Scotland confirmed that Clacher was arrested on an international arrest warrant and that extradition proceedings will follow. The arrest was carried out by the Civil Guard's UCO fugitives unit, which also arrested UK-born alleged gangster Johnny Morrissey and his wife Nicola in September 2022.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard said the operation began after the National Crime Agency received an anonymous tip-off that Clacher could be living in Nerja. Officers discovered he was well integrated into the sports community, and his fitness obsession led to his downfall. He was described as dangerous by Scottish Police.
