THE 90s for many brings images of poll tax riots, Oasis or yet another cost of living crisis. For others though you may remember the truly bizarre arrest of a man from Northumberland for masturbating a dolphin.

The man indicted was animal rights campaigner Alan Cooper. One of the witnesses to the alleged episode was the owner of Flamingo Land, Peter Bloom.

The wild bottlenose nicknamed Freddie visited Amble harbour everyday for around five years in the late 1980s and became a bit of a local celebrity.

Cooper developed an unusually special bond with an unusual dolphin and the pair would spend hours swimming in the north sea harbour together.

But something was to rock the boat of Freddie and Cooper when Peter Bloom, along with others, claimed to have seen the animal activist pleasuring the dolphin and a complaint was filed to the plod.

Cooper was taken into custody, and news of him allegedly engaging in inappropriate behaviour with the mammal swiftly captured the attention of the entire nation, sparking widespread outrage over the reported misconduct.

“He hooked his penis over my arm, it was normal”

This extraordinary story has now been made into a podcast by journalist Becky Milligan who actually swam with the very same dolphin back in 1990.

Cooper was eventually found not guilty at trial, but the accusation hugely affected his role of an animal rights protector.

He describes the event on his website.

“Freddie was his usual self, sometimes hooking me with his penis to the leg or arm – it was all perfectly normal, to me at least. It was only later when I was provided with the police statements that I realised otherwise. Bloom, the ‘expert’, had been speaking to people on [the] boat. Part of Bloom’s police statement read: ‘You won’t get near, he is wanking off the dolphin.’”

Milligan spoke to the Guardian about the effects the acquisition had on Cooper.

“Alan had a reputation in the northern animal rights movement and to be accused of that was the most damaging thing. It’s difficult to express what that did to him, to be accused of abusing the very thing you’re trying to protect.”

According to the podcast, the coppers couldn’t keep a straight face when stating the accusation that he had been ‘wanking off a dolphin’.

Milligan hasn’t included that for dramatic effect or for clickbait. “You have to use a bit of the language of the day. Those words are in the court case; we’re not being salacious.” she stated.

The story quickly got picked up by the Sun and some of the other red tops, quickly fanning a plethora of over-egged titillating stories which seriously damaged Coopers reputation.

“His whole raison d’etre is helping people and looking after animals. He’s from an area that’s two up, two down, he left school at 16 – there weren’t many opportunities,” added Milligan.

To hear the whistles and clicks for yourself check out the podcast ‘Hooked on Freddie’ here.