Dramatic moment British Tinder rape suspect – accused of attacking two women he met on the app in Scotland – is arrested while working out on a Costa del Sol beach

This is the dramatic moment a British fugitive accused of raping two women he met on Tinder in Scotland was arrested while exercising on a Costa del Sol beach.

James Clacher, 55, a Tinder rape suspect, was hanging upside down from a rope while flexing his muscles during a heavy weight training session when he was jumped by two plainclothes officers posing as tourists.

Video footage shows an officer wearing a sunhat running towards Clacher. Clacher pretended to disappear in a Scottish loch two years ago, but then fled. A female officer approached him from behind.

She and two other colleagues who arrived as reinforcements a few seconds later pinned the muscular Scot to the sand, then dragged him away from the beach with the handcuffs behind his back.

Detectives had him cover his bare chest with a T-shirt and tattoos, then took him to the police station, where he was fingerprinted and his photo taken.

Tinder rape suspect James Clacher, 55, was hanging upside down from a rope when he was jumped by two plainclothes officers posing as tourists

Video footage showed an officer wearing a sun hat running toward Clacher as a female officer approached him from behind

Spain’s Guardia Civil today released the first images of the high-profile arrest, which shows Clacher’s obsession with fitness has proven his downfall

Spain’s Guardia Civil today released the first images of the sensational arrest, which revealed that Clacher’s obsession with fitness was his downfall and led to his arrest in the Costa del Sol resort of Nerja, east of Malaga.

The arrest took place on May 21, but investigators in Spain have not yet made an official statement or released any images from the day the fugitive was captured.

The 55-year-old man was due to stand trial for assaulting two women he met through Tinder.

He is accused of raping a woman at a flat in Troon in August 2019 and a further attack on a woman at a flat in Gorbals, Glasgow in September 2020.

The gym owner was last seen in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, on May 30, 2022, and was reported missing after his clothes and Suzuki Swift car were found the following day in the car park of Loch Long in Arrochar, Argyll.

A Police Scotland spokesman said earlier this year that he had been found and detained in Spain: ‘A 55-year-old man was arrested in Spain on Tuesday 21 May on an international arrest warrant.

“We are in consultation with partner organizations and extradition proceedings will be initiated against him.”

The arrest was carried out by the Guardia Civil’s centralised fugitives unit UCO, which in September 2022 arrested UK-born alleged gangster Johnny Morrissey and his wife Nicola.

A police spokesman said today in his first comment on the operation to capture Clacher, aptly named Operation Clacher: ‘The operation began when the UK National Crime Agency received an anonymous tip-off that he might be living in Nerja. He immediately contacted the Guardia Civil UCO unit.

The arrest was carried out by the Guardia Civil’s centralized UCO refugee unit

‘This information, along with other details about the fugitive that indicated his life was closely linked to the sport, enabled agents to trace him to that city.

‘They found that he was well integrated into the sports world and that he was using a false identity.

After his identity was established through discreet surveillance, he was arrested while practicing calisthenics in a recreational area on Nerja beach.

‘This man, who was described as dangerous by Scottish Police, was accused of sexually assaulting two women he met on a dating app.

His trial was suspended while the search for him began, as he fled his country in 2022 when authorities reported his car had been found near a loch in Scotland.

‘Police in Scotland later determined that it was not an involuntary disappearance and that he had fled to avoid arrest.’

It was not clear today whether Clacher is resisting extradition or has agreed to be flown back to the UK to face trial.

He has already appeared before a judge at the Spanish Audiencia National court in Madrid, which handles extraditions.