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Muscle-squeezing bogeyman Akinwale Arobieke is now in Newcastle, ChronicleLive can exclusively reveal.

The 22-stone Manchester-born bodybuilder, better known as Aki, became infamous in the North West due to his bizarre antics which once saw him BANNED from touching muscles.

He was issued with a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) after repeatedly asking men if he could squeeze their muscles - though he has never been convicted of any sex offence and has denied in court that he takes sexual gratification from feeling muscles.

Arobieke’s SOPO bans him from touching, measuring or feeling muscles and asking people to do squat exercises in public; feeling muscles in private without consent; loitering around or going into gyms and sports clubs; talking to anyone under 18 on purpose; entering a school or university without permission; driving or being a passenger in any car other than a taxi; leaving Merseyside without the chief constable’s permission; and entering St Helens, Warrington or Widnes without police permission.

The order was lifted in 2016 and it is understood Northumbria Police is aware Arobieke is now on Tyneside.

His towering figure has been repeatedly spotted in Newcastle city centre over the past week.

On Tuesday, he was spotted sitting outside Fenwick on Northumberland Street carrying a Sainsbury's bag.

One man who spotted Arobieke said: "I locked eyes with him and he scurried behind a wall next to WH Smith.

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

"I asked can I get a photo of you squeezing my muscles but he said 'no, no I can’t - I’ll get into trouble'."

In the 1980s Arobieke was convicted of manslaughter when he allegedly chased Gary Kelly who ran onto electrified tracks at New Brighton station, in Liverpool, and was electrocuted.

The decision was later overturned at the Court of Appeal when senior judges ruled he had not acted unlawfully.

On Monday December 15 2003, Arobieke was jailed for six years at Preston Crown Court after pleading guilty to 15 counts of harassment and another of witness intimidation.

An additional 61 alleged counts, mostly of indecent assault, were left to lie on file.

The judge also issued 31 restraining orders banning him from contacting any of the men named in the case.

Judge Edward Slinger said at the time: “Your behaviour is both strange and obsessive.”

On his release in 2006, Arobieke was handed a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO).

He once admitted in court to an “unusual interest in muscles, the development of muscles and the potential of men to improve their physique”.

He was jailed for breaching his SOPO before magistrates made the order indefinite in 2008.

His near decade-long muscle touching ban was lifted in 2016 by a judge at Manchester Crown Court who reportedly said it could "no longer be justified".

Aki has repeatedly denied claims of being a pest - telling courts he has been set up by police.

Aki's antics on Merseyside made him so notorious he became the subject of a BBC documentary called 'The Man Who Squeezes Muscles: Searching for Purple Aki'.

However, the 58-year-old has complained about that nickname arguing it is racially charged.