THIS is the dramatic moment a Tinder rapist who faked his own death and fled Scotland was arrested while working out on a Spanish beach.
James Clacher preyed on his victims each in their own home during the crimes in 2019 and 2020.
SolarpixTwo undercover cops dressed as tourists pounced on him[/caption]
A mugshot of Clacher taken after his arrest
SolarpixClacher was traced “hanging upside down” on exercise equipment on a beach in Spain[/caption]
The 57 year-old former gym boss then went missing in May 2022 while facing the charges.
Clacher’s motor had been found dumped at a car park in Loch Long in Argyll and Bute.
There was a suicide note suggesting he planned to commit suicide by going into the water there.
But, instead, it emerged Clacher had eventually escaped the UK before living in Spain.
Amid a fresh manhunt, It was in Nerja in the Costa del Sol that he was eventually traced by the Spanish Civil Guard in May 2024.
He was described as “hanging upside down” on gym equipment on a beach before being hauled back to Scotland to face justice.
Video footage showed one male officer with a sunhat on running up to Clacher as a female police officer approached him from behind.
He is then cuffed and filmed with his back to the camera being led off the beach.
Clacher was today convicted of two rape charges following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
He will be sentenced at a later date.
Both victims bravely testified against their attacker.
The first – a 46 year-old mum – told how she was raped by a fitness instructor she had known as James Clarke having met on Tinder.
She recalled how she was attacked within “10 to 15 minutes max” of him turning up at her home in Ayrshire in August 2019.
The woman told how she was grabbed, pushed against a wall and sexually assaulted.
She told the court: “He did not say a word. I said: ‘I do not like this. I do not want to do this’. I kept saying that.
“He was just ignoring me. My body started shaking and I started crying.”
She then recalled how he forced her upstairs and raped her again in her bedroom.
After the attacks, Clacher bizarrely claimed he had to leave as his brother had suffered a heart attack.
‘Predatory rapist’
The woman did not initially report the crime to police.
But, there was further contact between herself and Clacher in which she branded him “a predatory rapist” and “a vessel for what you wanted”.
The woman did get in touch with Tinder. She told jurors: “I did not want anyone else hurt by him.”
But, the court heard Clacher raped a second woman he had met on the Bumble dating app.
The attack occurred at the 31 year-old victim’s home in Glasgow in September 2020.
They had gone for food, went for a walk on the beach before returning to her flat to watch a movie.
This woman accepted she went on to take her dress off and Clacher – who she knew only as James – also removed some of his clothes.
He initially tried to have sex with her, but she directed him back to the film.
The woman then became emotional in her evidence as recalled how he then raped her.
She spoke of feeling “scared” as he grabbed one arm with her other against a couch.
Clacher then stayed in her flat for 20 minutes after the attack – then claimed he was “sorry” but that he would like to see the her again.
This woman later reported him to the police which led to officers speaking to the first victim.
Clacher – who helped run a gym in Airdrie, Lanarkshire – had denied the charges claiming it was “not in his DNA to hurt anyone”.
He also refuted the suggestion he went AWOL in 2022 to evade justice.
This was at a time he was also due to face questioning about inappropriately touching two young women at his gym.
Faked death plot
The court heard, prior to fleeing Scotland, he had withdrawn £6000 and €220 from a bank account.
He sent apparently concerning messages to friends before his father James senior reported him missing.
The handwritten suicide note was found in Clacher’s Suzuki Swift following a search.
But, he said he was not “ending” things because of the accusations, rather the “pain and suffering” caused to his family.
After eventually being found in Spain in 2024, Clacher told police how he had survived in the wild on a “berries and puddle water” before leaving the UK.
Clacher claimed in court any sexual contact with rape victims was consensual.
But, prosecutor Catriona MacLeod put to him: “I suggest that you told lie upon lie – so many, what are you not lying about, I may ask.”
Clacher denied the suggestion.
Lord Cubie remanded him in custody pending sentencing on October 1 in Edinburgh.
The judge stated Clacher had acted in a “warped and self centred manner” warning him to expect a lengthy jail-term.
Tinder rape suspect James Clacher, 55, was hanging upside down on a rope as he was jumped on by two plain-clothes officers posing as tourists. Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
