The Legend of Akinwale Arobieke
One of Liverpool’s most enduring urban legends concerns Purple Aki, a man whose skin is so black that he apparently appears to be purple.
Purple Aki – aka Akinwale Arobieke – was convicted of the manslaughter of a boy 20 years ago, only for the conviction to be quashed by the court of appeal.
He has also received a Sexual Offences Prevention Order that prevents him from touching the biceps of boys, a bizarre predilection of his that has become infamous throughout the North West.
As such, Purple Aki has attracted an almost mythical notoriety and has become a kind of Merseyside bogeyman, like the Candyman but without the bees.
It seems as if he’s is in trouble again, with a 17-year-old in Birkenhead claiming that Arobieke approached him to ask if he could touch his muscles.
The boy in question is alleged to be a distant relative of the boy whose death was the focus of the trial some years ago, and the prosecution alleges this is the motive for an untruth.
While Purple Aki’s legend has in roots in an undoubted real-life tragedy, the story since then has taken repeated turns for the bizarre, disturbing and vaguely comic.
He received a ban on asking youngsters if he could touch or measure their muscles and asking people to perform squat exercises in public.
And an interview with the Echo revealed these you-couldn’t-make-it-up quotes:
He insisted he would now only touch men’s muscles in private with their consent.
Arobieke denied allegations of touching men, jumping on their backs and bear-hugging them while in jail.
But the legend of Purple Aki has grow grown far beyond the reality with a cartoon, dedicated website and Glastonbury flag appearance to his name.
Funnily enough Candyman started off as a short story set in Toxteth, back in the days when Clive Barker was a scouser. It’s tempting to wonder if Arobieke could possibly have influenced a young Barker.
But to do that simply mythologises the man even more – a man who is either a disturbed pervert or a persecuted oddball. Either way it seems rather inappropriate to snigger at the ‘muscle-touching’ headlines.
Poor Purple Aki. It’s the sort of notoriety no-one ever really shakes off and, alleged crimes or not, it’s a slightly sad spectacle when someone clearly on the borders of mental illness is prodded, poked and laughed at by the rest of society.
One Comment
hi Fiona and i are trying to learn more about candyman we are both ten years old and we are not afraid of candyman but fiona is a little bit. in my school we write messages to candyman and we are saying give us a sign and then it worked i did this not at my school near the train track and it wrote back to fiona and i TIL and we are doing a quest about CANDYMAN!