EXCLUSIVE: Strong arm of the law: Eighteen-stone champion bodybuilder, 32, faces restraining order stopping him going near keep fit fan ex, 26, after he stalked her when she ‘dumped him for rival gym-goer’
- Danny Baldwinson, 32, kept pestering Aaliyah Baptiste, 26, after end of romance
- He bombarded her over the phone after suspecting she had a new man from gym
A jilted bodybuilder stalked his ex-girlfriend after becoming suspicious she had started dating a rival weightlifter at the gym.
Eighteen-stone Danny Baldwinson, 32, a former winner of the Hercules Olympia competition, kept pestering business graduate Aaliyah Baptiste, 26, ignoring her protests to be left alone.
Three of his abusive phone calls were played to Croydon Magistrates Court, in which he describes his new suspected love rival as ‘an ugly f****** kid.’
He also branded the man as a ‘four out of ten’ and said: ‘I am embarrassed. What an ugly f****** kid, from f****** Bulgaria.’
Baldwinson, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, was found guilty of stalking the marketing specialist – who also posts her own work-out pictures – between July 1 and August 8, last year.
Danny Baldwinson, 32, kept pestering Aaliyah Baptiste, 26, after end of a year-long romance
Business graduate Aaliyah Baptiste, 26, kept protesting to be left alone but was ignored by him
The conviction puts him in breach of a sixty-day suspended prison sentence, imposed last year for breaching a non-molestation order, relating to another complainant.
After a year of dating, working-out together and holidaying in Turkey, Ms Baptiste ended the relationship. ‘I did not want anymore contact, but he did not agree to end things,’ she told the trial from behind a screen.
‘He said we could still be friends and train together, but I did not want that and blocked him. He tried to call me and I blocked the number and then he tried via social media and I blocked him again.
‘At my gym, Muscleworks in Orpington he would come at the times he knew I would be there to show he was there in my life.
‘I would ignore him, but he would try and talk to me and asked: ‘Can we discuss this?’ but I told him: ‘I don’t want to talk to you,’ I wanted to get on with my day.
Eighteen-stone Danny Baldwinson, 32, is a former winner of the Hercules Olympia competition
Ms Baptiste called the police when Baldwinson unexpectedly turned up at 8am at the bedroom window of the Bromley home she shares with her mother and other family members
‘He would pick the times I was training to see me and start a conversation. I started to go to a different gym so I would not have to see him.’
Father-of-two Baldwinson claimed Ms Baptiste knew his strict exercise and diet routine inside out and ensured she was at the gym at the same time he was.
She eventually called the police when he unexpectedly turned up at 8.00am at the bedroom window of the Bromley home she shares with her mother and other family members.
‘I was getting ready for work and heard a knocking at my bedroom window and I opened the curtain slightly and could see who it was.’
Baldwinson told the court he was expected and was only there to collect his passport, some clothing and nutritional supplements after the split.
‘He was demanding answers from me and assuming I had a new partner and was saying: ‘I want answers. How could you meet someone so soon?’
‘I called my mum into my room and we were both telling him to leave and that we did not want him there.’
They recorded the confrontation and the magistrates viewed footage of Baldwinson leaning in his ex’s bedroom window.
‘He leaned in the window and when I showed him my phone and that I had called the police he left.
‘I was nervous, anxious and scared. For someone to knock on the window and lean in is quite scary.’
Further abusive phone calls were played in which Baldwinson asked: ‘Are you f****** him?’ He also complained: ‘You’re hurting me. Can you see how much you’re hurting me?’
In another he said: ‘You’ve been lying to everyone. I don’t want to be worrying about you or f****** heartbroken about you. You are taking the p***.’
‘He wanted to know if I was dating other people,’ Ms Baptiste told the trial. ‘I don’t think I did anything to deserve this behaviour.’
Self-employed coach Baldwinson, who has now moved from Crystal Palace to renew a former relationship with an ex-girlfriend in Newcastle-under-Lyme insisted he never stalked or harassed Ms Baptiste.
‘We had a mutual passion for fitness and I introduced her to the gyms and the community,’ he told the court. ‘She made demands and wanted quite a lot of self-improvement for me.
‘She made targets for me to stay with her, targets in employment and property.’
Baldwinson said the relationship soured when he hesitated loaning her £2,000 for a personal trainer course.
‘She said the relationship was pretty much done, but if she saw action on my part in the next six months we could be together.
‘The truth had come out that she was seeing someone for a considerable time. She was keeping her options open by stringing me along.’
He denied approaching her in the gym. ‘I was naive emotionally and financially. I was being made a fool of because she was sleeping with a guy at the gym.’
The home visit had been pre-arranged insisted Baldwinson. ‘I was there for my stuff and all she had to do was pass it through the window.’
Magistrate David Armitage announced: ‘He has admitted he did not take the break-up well and we consider the calls to be hostile in nature.’
The prosecution will apply for a restraining order when Baldwinson is sentenced on March 21 after a probation report is prepared and he was bailed on condition he does not contact Ms Baptiste or visit her home address.
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