Here follows a synopsis of the week long trial that eventually led to the return to jail of the man known as Purple Aki
Man denies muscles ban
A LIVERPOOL man accused of breaching an interim sexual offences prevention order was caught on CCTV grabbing a young man’s bicep, a jury was told.
Akinwale Arobieke, 46, of Cavendish Gardens, Devonshire Road, Toxteth, denies breaching the order which bans him from “touching, feeling or measuring any muscle area”.
The case, being heard at Preston crown court, follows an alleged incident on May 24.
(Proceeding)
The following is an extract form the Lancashire Evening Post website on the same day
A convicted criminal known as 'Purple Aki' has denied breaching a sexual offences order which bans him from touching other people's muscles.
A man has told a jury he was grabbed in Preston, Lancashire, by a man he thought was a well-known "bogeyman".The events took place on May 24 this year when the man, known only as Jonathan, was shopping with a friend in Preston city centre.Akinwale Arobieke, 46, of Cavendish Gardens, Liverpool, denies two charges of breaching an interim Sexual Offences Prevention Order imposed in October 2006, which bans him from "touching, feeling or measuring any muscle areas".
Giving evidence from behind a screen, Jonathan told the jury at Preston Crown Court that as he and his friend crossed Fishergate outside Topshop the man grabbed him by his right bicep.He said the man asked him which gym he went to and said that must be where he recognised him from.He said: "He had hold of my right bicep throughout."Arobieke is alleged to have asked Jonathan about his gym training and told him he was getting bigger as a result.Jonathan said his friend started telling him about Arobieke and man reacted to by tightening his grip on the young man's bicep and denying the allegations.
Arobieke is then said to have asked Jonathan to go and talk to him down Canon Street free from his friend's interruptions and gestured with his head for him to walk away with him. However, worried by the claims his friend was making, Jonathan shook the man off his shoulder and went to join his friend.The pair later reported the incident to a security guard in the Mall St George's.
They met another friend after work and looked up 'Purple Aki' on the internet.Jonathan spoke to his mother about what had happened and she urged him to report the incident to the police.Robert Platts, defence, read the jury an account of Arobieke's notoriety taken from the website Wikipedia, which stated: "Akinwale Arobieke, known locally as Purple Aki, is a convicted criminal from the North West of England."He was widely believed to be an urban legend until his imprisonment in Liverpool in 2001. He was well known as a "bogeyman" in the area, with stories of his activity reaching as far as Wigan and Doncaster."Many stories talk of his sexual attacks, but he has never been found guilty of anything of a sexual nature."Mr Platts quoted further references to Arobieke's criminal history taken from the site and added: "The jury will hear that is factually incorrect."
However, Mr Platts said: "Mr Arobieke accepts he was in Preston that day and around the area we are talking about, but he denies any contact with you."What I suggest happened to you is that (your friend) spotted him because he knew a
bout him because of his Liverpool football (friends] and the fact that he had in the past downloaded him through the net."He spots him and says there and then 'that's Purple Aki' at a distance from you and from that point on you spot him two or three times."You were going round following him."Prosecutor Jonathan Clarke said on the same day a similar incident was recorded on CCTV in the St George's shopping centre.He said Arobieke was seen grabbing the bicep of another young man who was out shopping with his girlfriend.The man did not report the incident but was traced through local media appeal following Jonathan's complaint.
Then on November 14th the following appeared on the Lancashire Evening Post site
Man at centre of muscle-squeezing claims blames Wikipedia
A man accused of breaching a court order from feeling people's muscles told a jury he was at the centre of a plot to "stitch him up".
Akinwale Arobieke, 46, of Cavendish Gardens, Liverpool, admitted having a previous obsession with body building but said since he had not committed any offences since his conviction for harassment in 2001.He claimed allegations that he breached his interim Sexual Offences' Prevention Order by squeezing the biceps of two young men in Preston in May this year were untrue and that witnesses had read lies about him on the Internet.Prosecutor Jonathan Clarke accepted the complainant involved in the first incident on Fishergate had researched Arobieke on the Wikipedia website.However, he said although the 2001 harassment charge was made up of numerous incidents involving 14 young men – most of which involved him grabbing their muscles and complimenting them on their physique – it was not detailed on Wikipedia.Arobieke said he had never visited the site as he found its contents offensive and declined the opportunity to view a printout.He said: "When you do something wrong you can only be punished so much. I have admitted what I have don
e in the past and I want to move forward."He also said vital evidence which would have clarified the events in Fishergate had been destroyed: "I said that the CCTV footage was my only defence and my only defence was deleted."However, CCTV footage of Arobieke and the second complainant, Carl, in the Mall St George's, was shown in court.Mr Clarke said the video appeared to show the men talking and the witness flex his bicep. He then said it appeared Areobieke grabbed the man's bicep, a claim Arobieke vehemently denied.He said: "I don't deny I walked past him and there was contact but I wasn't in breach of my SOPO. When I went into town that day I had no bad intentions at all. I had no bad thoughts whatsoever."He claimed that Merseyside Police had made a payout to him for "untruths they made about me to put my life in danger" in 1999.
Man jailed over 'body obsession'
Then this is the final article which appeared on November 15th in the LEP
A man who a judge said had "deliberately and audaciously" ignored a court order by travelling to Preston where he approached a shopper and touched his bicep, has been sent to prison.
Akinwale Arobieke was a man "obsessed" with other people's bodies, the court was told, and under a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO), was banned from "touching or feeling other people's muscles in public". After a week-long trial at Preston Crown Court he was convicted on one charge of breaching the order and cleared by the jury of another breach.The trial was told that Arobieke had, in May this year, approached a man in St George's Shopping Mall and touched his bicep. Although the man was not put in fear by the action, he later recognised himself in a CCTV photograph in the Lancashire Evening Post and reported what had happened to police.The original order came about on an application by the Chief Constable of Merseyside the day before Arobieke, 46, of Cavendish Gardens, Devonshire Road, Liverpool, who denied the breaches, was due to be released from a sentence imposed at Preston Crown Court.He had been sentenced to six years in December 2003 for 15 offences of putting people in fear of violence and one of intimidating a witness. By breaching the order in Preston, Arobieke became e
ligible to be returned to prison to complete the six-year term for which he had been released early.Judge Stuart Baker sentenced him to 15 months outstanding from the original term and added six months for the breach.Because of time spent on remand in custody for the breach, the effect of the sentence would mean he has to serve the 15-month term.The judge told him his actions "leave me to conclude you have not overcome your obsession". Judge Baker said he accepted the incidence of touching had been brief and the man was never placed in fear.He had denied the Preston offence for which he was convicted by the jury despite CCTV evidence against him, added the judge.
A lot more information about an "urban myth" character called Purple Aki can be found in this Wikipedia article
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