A man has been found guilty after he terrified female motorists by walking around Somerset in a gimp suit.
Joshua Hunt, 32, has today (27 October) been found guilty at Bristol Magistrates’ Court of two offences under the Public Order Act of causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress.
Bristol Magistrates’ Court heard the incidents took place in the evening of 7 May and shortly after midnight on 9 May this year in Bleadon, near Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
He was seen by one lone female driver to be writhing around on the ground while another was left shaking and crying by the alleged incident.
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After being arrested following the second incident, Hunt told police: “I am not a gimp - I do not own a gimp suit. I am not in a gimp suit.”
In a written statement, motorist Lucy Lodge said she was driving home along Accommodation Road in Bleadon when she saw something moving on the ground.
“He was writhing and crawling as if in a military fashion,” she said.
“I could see the person was wearing very tight, dark clothing and had a mask on their face. The mask was dark and very tight and two white crosses where the eyes should be.
“My first thought was it could be a possible abduction and the person was trying to get me out of my car.
“It was terrifying although I had only seen them for a few seconds.
“He was dressed all in black with a shiny, black facemask with white crosses on. They were face down in a military fashion and writhing and crawling on their belly.”
She added: “The whole incident felt so surreal, and I was questioning myself about what I was seeing and making this statement makes me feel anxious.
“I genuinely believed it was an abduction because you read about this in the newspapers. When I got home I was breathing heavily and I was having a borderline panic attack.
“I had never seen anything like this before. I feel scared and I never want to see this thing again due to the fright it gave me.
“I didn’t sleep more than three hours that night.”
Giving evidence, Hunt, a self-employed gardener, told the court he wore the outfit to go ‘mudding’ and apologised to the women.
“It never entered my head that what I was doing was frightening people,” he said.
“I apologise to those people - I agree what I was doing was frightening but hand on my heart I never intended to cause them harassment, alarm or distress.”
Claire Reid