Champion Bodybuilder Stalked Ex

Guilty: Baldwinson

A champion bodybuilder stalked his ex-girlfriend after she dumped him via WhatsApp - leaving foul-mouthed voice messages about her suspected new boyfriend, a court heard.

Eighteen-stone Danny Baldwinson, 32, a former winner of Hercules Olympia, 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***ing kid.”

He also branded the man as a “four out of ten” and said: “I am embarrassed. What an ugly f***ing kid, from f***ing Bulgaria.”

Baldwinson, of Clayton Road, 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.

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.

"Scared": Baptiste

“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 Hayes, 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.”

Bodybuilder: Baldwinson

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***ing 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***ing 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 Ridge Way, 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.”

Fit: Baptiste

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 bodybuilder read out a text he received from Ms Baptiste, in which she agrees to sex in exchange for £500.

“Pay me and I will,” read the text. “You can make a video and you will keep things discreet, a special thing between us.

“I don’t want you to post anything because it will damage my career. we can be consensual in six months because I might get lonely sometimes.”

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.