Finally, after 5 long years of featuring in Sick Chirpse articles, the Somerset Gimp has finally been brought to justice after terrorising women around the South West of England in his gimp suit.
Joshua Hunt, 32, denied two counts of causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress, but was found guilty this afternoon.
Lucy Lodge, one of his victims, said: “He kept coming towards me and was touching his groin, grunting and breathing heavy. As I tried to take a step back he was right in front of my face and he put his leg forward. I was just trying to assess the situation in my head quickly. Everything was running through my head. I thought: ‘This is it, I’m going to get attacked’. Every time I close my eyes I just see that face.”
Another victim said: “He was writhing and crawling as if in a military fashion. 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.”
When Hunt was arrested in his white van minutes after the second incident in Bleadon, he told police: “I am not a gimp – I do not own a gimp suit. I am not in a gimp suit.”
Despite his protestations, police ‘noticed his skin was extremely wet and damp – suggesting he had been lying on the side of the road.’ Hunt then insisted: “I am not dangerous, I am a normal person, I have got a few problems.”
Unfortunately for Hunt, a search of his van uncovered a collection of wet black clothing, women’s tights, face masks and gloves. A search of Hunt’s home in Claverham then uncovered a journal in which he had written a story about someone called Jack who purchases a black rubber suit and mask.
He had also done internet searches in 2022 and 2023 about the ‘Somerset Gimp’ and the ‘Gimp of Cleeve’.
In court, Hunt confessed that he was having problems with his mental health, and explained that he would go out at night and change into black clothing to go ‘mudding’: “It’s something I do to get covered in mud which is another reason I was there as it is close to the estuary where there is mud. The clothes I wear and face masks are for mudding only, hence why I had them in the vehicle.”
What does he get out of ‘mudding’, you ask: “Time from time, it is a self-loathing thing because I feel so crap about myself. It’s a release because I feel like sh*t – I cover myself in sh*t.”
Well, I guess that’s a decent psychological explanation. In any case, the court did find that he was intentionally terrorising these women and so he got found guilty and will be sentenced at a later date.
For what it’s worth, Hunt says he didn’t intend on scaring anyone: “It never entered my head that what I was doing was frightening people. 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.”
Next time, might be a good idea to join some kind of club, online or otherwise, where he can arrange to meet up with likeminded men who want to get dressed up in gimp suits together in private, rather than freak out innocent women in the middle of the night. Then again, the ‘freaking out women’ part was probably most of the appeal, so I’m not sure there’s a club for that.
I’m just glad we won’t have blog about this guy every again. Although… it looks like there’s at least one more copycat gimp about.
[h/t Metro]
