Man dressed in a suit made of gaffa tape terrorised women and children in Somerset for years before police caught him
Emilia Randall GAU Writer
14:32, 06 Oct 2025
The Somerset Gimp – Joshua Hunt – was given a court order in 2023
Women and children in Somerset for years were haunted by sightings of a man dressed in a gimp suit made entirely of gaffa tape – until he was caught and banned from banned from ‘crawling, wriggling or writhing’ in public places.
A Freedom of Information request made to Avon and Someset Police uncovered a police call log describing a man clad in ‘a full gimp suit with a red mask’. Other entries noted sightings of a man donning a ‘gimp mask made of gaffa tape” or “a full black head gimp mask’.
The unsettling incidents led to women in North Somerset altering their nighttime routines, desperate to avoid becoming his next victim.
However, the reign of terror that had residents of Cleeve, Claverham, and Yatton living in fear finally ended when landscape gardener Joshua Hunt was apprehended in 2023, reports the Mirror.
One woman, who chose to remain anonymous, shared her unnerving experience following an encounter with the so-called ‘Somerset Gimp’. She said: “As soon as it gets dark, I still feel more uncomfortable, even just walking to the car – or walking back late at night on my own, even from the pub in the village hall.”
She revealed that the ordeal was a frequent topic of conversation among her friends, especially when planning local outings. They meticulously charted their routes home to ensure they stuck together for safety.
While she acknowledged the situation might have sounded ‘funny’ to some, she stressed the reality of potentially running into the ‘gimp’ was a constant worry, particularly during the night.
Another local mum told the BBC: “I’ve got older children and even my kids are saying ‘it’s the gimp man again’. They’re really freaked out by it. But it could be anyone and I want to come from a practical point of view and do something to help people feel safer.”
Abi, then 25, recounted her horrifying experience: “My heart felt like I was running a marathon, (there was) an instant feeling of panic, anxiety and anger again which took me over a year of private counselling and medications to control.
“If I’m not worrying at home, I’m worrying at work because my wife’s at home and so are many other women.”
Hunt was told he could no longer ‘writhe'(Image: Avon and Somerset Police / SWNS)
She explained that the man was fully dressed in the suit and was “coming towards me and was touching his groin, grunting and breathing heavy”.
Det Insp Dan Rowan, from Avon and Somerset Police, acknowledged that previous similar incidents in different locations had made officers “keenly aware of the potential impact on the public”. They acted “extremely rapidly” in response to the Bleadon reports, leading to Hunt’s arrest.
He said: “Investigations like this will naturally affect people in different ways and it’s very understandable that in this case, with the circumstances, people will have been extremely afraid of what they’ve seen.”
During the subsequent court case, Peter Richardson, representing Hunt, said his client had adopted a “pragmatic and practical approach” to the proceedings. He said: “We are not contesting the application but that is not the same as agreeing with everything that is set out.”
In November,2023, Hunt was issued with a sexual risk order following police arguments that the incidents were sexually motivated. This ruling meant Hunt was hit with a five-year ban on certain activities and will remain on the sex offender register until 2028.
The restrictions prevents Hunt, a gardener from north Somerset, from crawling, wriggling or writhing on the ground in public while wearing full-body coverings, garments resembling full-body coverings, and/or masks or full-face coverings.
District Judge Joanna Dickens said: “I am satisfied that you have done a series of acts of a sexual nature. A sexual risk order is quite a serious order, and it has a lot of obligations of you and if you breach this order you can go to prison.”
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