Arobieke: girlfriend of tragic teen speaks out
THE girlfriend and daughter of a teenager who was electrocuted at a railway station while allegedly fleeing Akinwale Arobieke have spoken out on a BBC documentary.
Gary Kelly was 16 when he died on Sunday June 15, 1986.
Mr Arobieke – known for his predilection for touching men’s muscles – was convicted of his manslaughter after it was alleged the teen was running away from him when he died.
Bbut the decision was later overturned by the Court of Appeal when judges ruled he had not acted unlawfully.
Elaine Jordan, from Birkenhead, was pregnant with Gary’s child when he died.
She and their daughter, Jamielee, spoke about his death for BBC Three documentary The Man Who Squeezes Muscles - about Mr Arobieke.
She said: “Gary Kelly was my boyfriend. “Gary was a big lad, he was six foot and he absolutely adored football, he was constantly playing football.”
Earlier this year Mr Arobieke, now 54, had a decade-long ban on touching men’s biceps lifted .
The 6ft 5in bodybuilder, from Aigburth, has never been convicted of a sexual offence and claimed he was the victim of a witchhunt.
In 2001 he was charged with 50 counts of indecent assault and harassment against 14 teenage boys between 1995 and 2000.
He pleaded not guilty, but was later convicted over an unrelated matter.
Also featured in the documentary was the case of Widnes woman Kelly Mullaney, who said that Mr Arobieke had followed her and her brother home after trying to touch his muscles in 2000.
She said that he banged on the front door, and made threats of ‘you’re dead’.
Mr Arobieke was later convicted and sentenced to 30 months in prison for threats to kill but Kelly moved away from the area ‘to be on the safe side’.
Mr Arobieke was later imprisoned for a further six years following guilty pleas to 15 counts of harassment and one count of witness harassment.
On his release in 2006, he was handed the sexual offences prevention order (Sopo), which has now been lifted.
The order banned him from specific activities including touching men’s muscles and asking them to do squats.
He once admitted in court to an “unusual interest in muscles, the development of muscles and the potential of young men to improve their physique”.
He was jailed for breaching his Sopo before magistrates made the order indefinite in 2008.
He received jail sentences in 2009 and 2010 for breaching the order - despite never having actually been convicted of a sexual offence. The documentary also explored the imposition of a sexual offences prevention order – recently lifted when a judge ruled that no sexual offences had been committed – had banned Mr Arobieke from Widnes, Warrington and St Helens and banned him from touching, measuring or feeling muscles or loitering near schools, gyms and other sports clubs.
Mr Arobieke maintains that his interest in muscles was non-sexual.