A bodybuilder who was once ordered by police not to touch men’s muscles has been found dead at his home in Liverpool.
Muscleman Akinwale Arobieke, also known as ‘Purple Aki’, was 64. The gym-lover was well known in his local community but in 2003 was jailed for six years after being convicted of harassing 15 men.
The conviction earned him the label of a ‘modern-day bogeyman’ in the press due to his long-held fascination with pumped-up physiques.
Three years later, while still behind bars, police issued him with a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) that banned him from touching men’s muscles and going to gyms.
And in 2015 he was also found to have touched a young man’s muscles while travelling on a train from Manchester to Wales. He was convicted of breaching the SOPO.
However, Arobieke insisted he had been the victim of a ‘modern-day witch hunt’ by the police and in 2016 he had the 10-year ban on touching men’s biceps lifted.
He had once admitted that his antics mean the public see him as ‘infamous, notorious, everything from the bogeyman to whatever’.
Arobieke was found dead at his home on Devonshire Road in the inner-city Toxteth area of Liverpool on Tuesday night, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Muscleman Akinwale Arobieke, also known as ‘Purple Aki’, has been found dead at home at the age of 64
The bodybuilder was handed a Sexual Offences Prevention Order that banned him from touching men’s muscles
His death is not thought to be suspicious. A file has been sent to the local coroner.
A Merseyside Police spokesperson said: ‘We can confirm that emergency services were in the Toxteth area following a non-suspicious death last night, Tuesday 26 August.
‘At around 8.30pm, officers were made aware of a man in his 60s being found unresponsive at an address in Devonshire Road, Princes Park. He was sadly pronounced deceased at the scene.
‘The man’s death is not suspicious and a file will be prepared for the coroner.’
His 2016 court case saw him represent himself as he successfully argued that while his conduct breached the order, it was neither sexual nor criminal in nature.
Judge Richard Mansell QC, sitting at Manchester Crown Court, said while Arobieke’s breaches of the order were a ‘serious matter’ – the restrictions it placed on his ‘freedoms’ could ‘no longer be justified’.
Lifting the order would allow him to pursue his interest in an ‘appropriate venue’, the judge said, such as a gym or a bodybuilding event.
‘The ban on touching muscles is just not on’, the judge said. ‘I’m not into bodybuilding myself, but I’d have thought men who have muscles in their arms the diameter of my leg are the sort of men who will admire each other’s bodies.
‘They don’t build the body up to hide it under loose-fitting sweatshirts. They are men likely to talk to and weigh and measure each other.’
Judge Mansell said he was first given the breach proceedings to deal with ‘because he was one of the few’ who hadn’t heard of him.
He said to Mr Arobieke: ‘There’s no doubt you have an interest in, some would say an obsession with, the musculature, or muscular build, of the male form.
‘You have approached 20-plus year olds, and you have approached males between 15 and 17. Is it because younger males are in better shape than older men? Why are you interested in younger men?’
Mr Arobieke replied: ‘I always have been (interested in younger men), but not in a sexual way.’
But he vowed after the landmark hearing he would change his ways.
‘From today I’m going to conduct myself properly’, he had said.
‘I’m going to have to reinvent myself. I can take a holiday for a start. I’m going to try and put my life back to normality.
I’m not going to run around touching everybody’s muscles because there’s no need for that.’
In 2022 he was handed a substantial payout from police after he sued the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police for malicious prosecution and misfeasance in public office.
Arobieke has been known by the moniker ‘Purple Aki’ for some 30 years, and it had even been used in court papers – despite it being a name he deemed ‘racist’.
Mr Arobieke had previously been convicted of manslaughter over the death of Gary Kelly, who ran onto railway tracks and was electrocuted in 1986.
He had allegedly been running from Arobieke at the time, but the conviction was later overturned.
