The Somerset Gimp Sightings and the Bleadon Conviction

For more than five years, people in a cluster of North Somerset villages about 10 miles south of Bristol called the police about the same figure: a man in a full black bodysuit and mask who appeared on dark lanes at night, rolled and writhed on the ground, and in some reports touched himself. The press called him the Somerset Gimp. In May 2023, a man named Joshua Hunt was caught after jumping in front of two women’s cars in Bleadon, near Weston-super-Mare. On October 27, 2023, Bristol Magistrates’ Court convicted him of two counts of intentionally causing harassment, alarm or distress. On November 3, 2023, the court imposed a five-year sexual risk order. Police have said there was insufficient evidence to link Hunt to the earlier sightings, and he has denied being the man in them. Nobody has been charged over those.

The Villages

The earlier sightings were in Yatton, Claverham, Cleeve and nearby Congresbury. Claverham lies between Yatton and Cleeve. The Guardian described the area as picturesque and usually peaceful, set just back from the coast. Bleadon, where Hunt was arrested, is about 12 miles from those villages, BBC News reported.

The Call Logs

A Freedom of Information request by BBC News produced a timeline of police calls, published in November 2023.

• November 23, 2018, to June 18, 2019, Yatton. Seven call log entries report a man in a “gimp suit” around the village. In November 2018 a caller describes “a full gimp suit with a red mask.” Other logs mention “a gimp mask made of gaffa tape” and “a full black head gimp mask.” By January 2019 a caller describes a man in “a latex suit and with no eye holes” rolling in animal excrement near field gates and “often masturbating.” The calls were logged as sexual offences or suspicious incidents.
• July 11, 2019, Claverham. A woman on Chapel Lane late at night suddenly finds a man in a bodysuit standing in front of her. She takes a photograph. The Guardian reported that she said he wore a “rubbery suit” and ran off when she screamed.
• July 2019, Claverham area. Two men, aged 28 and 34, are arrested on suspicion of indecency offences. Both are released in November 2019 for lack of evidence.
• August 7, 2019, to September 1, 2021. Nine more calls mentioning “the gimp” in Yatton, Claverham and Congresbury.
• September 1, 2021, Claverham. A couple report a masked man watching them in their home at 12:15 a.m. Police search but find nobody.
• September 19, 2021, to November 6, 2022. Four more calls in Claverham and Yatton.
• June 26, 2022, Yatton. A 19-year-old and her boyfriend report a “masked man in a latex suit coming toward them.” Officers find “no trace.”
• October 25, 2022, Cleeve. Two teenagers report a man in a bodysuit “writhing and grunting” on the ground as they tried to talk to him. One says he smelled “earthy” and was covered in mud. The Guardian reported that one described the outfit as “shiny” and said he spoke in a “demon language.”
• October 26, 2022, Cleeve. A man is arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and bailed. The Guardian reported that police used a dog unit and a helicopter and that his bail required him to stay home between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Charges are later dropped for insufficient evidence.

A man told the BBC that around 2018, when he was in his 20s, he parked in Yatton at about 2 a.m. and realised someone was watching him from about 1.5 metres away, “wearing a latex black suit and mask with red crosses over the eyes, no shoes.” He walked toward him and the man sprinted off.

Fear and Jokes

The 2019 photograph made national, then international, news. The Guardian noted a New York Post headline, T-shirts and mugs printed with the image, and a self-described “Gimp Man of Essex” complaining that the Somerset version was giving the “whole gimp community a bad reputation.”

Locally it was not funny. Women in Claverham told the BBC they planned routes home together and left pubs in groups. “As soon as it gets dark I still feel more uncomfortable, even just walking to the car,” one said. The woman who took the 2019 photograph said she saw his face every time she closed her eyes and had been prescribed medication for anxiety. Another woman, Abi, 25, said he came toward her “touching his groin, grunting and breathing heavy,” and that it took more than a year of private counselling and medication to control the panic that followed, Bristol Live reported in 2025, citing the BBC. Chris Jackson, chair of Yatton parish council, told the Guardian there was “some disquiet” but “also sympathy that this individual may have problems.”

Bleadon, May 2023

On May 7, 2023, a woman driving on Accommodation Road in Bleadon reported a man in dark clothing and a mask, seen in front of cars and rolling on the ground. The mask was dark, very tight, with white crosses where the eyes should be. Police did not find him. Her statement to the court, reported by Somerset Live: “The person was dressed in black from head to toe in a skintight suit and they had two fairly large white crosses over each eye.” She began to shake, felt as if she was having a panic attack, and thought it might be an abduction attempt. “I have never felt fear like that before, or since.”

Shortly after midnight on May 9, another woman called police to say a man in latex had jumped out in front of her car on the same road. A relative in the car screamed. “I didn’t know what he wanted to do, what his intentions were,” the driver said in her statement. She later left her job because she was “fed up with being scared while travelling to and from work.” It was, she said, the “worst night of my life.” Officers arrived within minutes and found Joshua Hunt, 32, a landscape gardener from a Claverham farming family, in a white Berlingo van reversing in a field off a track.

In the van were home-made outfits: black clothing, women’s tights, gloves, and masks made from tights with faces drawn on in neon white paint. More masks were found at his home. “The masks worn by Joshua Hunt, which were made out of tights and had faces drawn on them, terrified the people he jumped out on,” Chief Inspector Jonny Murray said.

The Charges

Avon and Somerset Police said the Crown Prosecution Service first authorised charges including affray over the two Bleadon incidents and one in Cleeve in October 2022. After review under the Code for Crown Prosecutors, those were replaced with two charges under section 4A of the Public Order Act 1986, intentionally causing harassment, alarm or distress, covering the two Bleadon incidents only. In July 2023, while he awaited trial, District Judge Joanna Dickens imposed an interim order. The Guardian reported she could understand why villagers, particularly women, would be frightened.

Trial and Sentence

Hunt accepted he was the masked man in Bleadon. He denied being the man seen in Cleeve, Yatton and Claverham, where his family home is. The court heard that in 2022 and 2023 he had searched online for “Somerset Gimp” and “Gimp of Cleeve.” On October 27, 2023, at Bristol Magistrates’ Court, he was found guilty of both counts. He was fined £100, ordered to pay £200 compensation to each victim and £620 in prosecution costs.

The Sexual Risk Order

On November 3, 2023, Judge Dickens granted Avon and Somerset Police a five-year sexual risk order. “I am satisfied that you have done a series of acts of a sexual nature,” she said. “If you breach this order you can go to prison.” Hunt did not contest the application. His barrister, Peter Richardson, said that “is not the same as agreeing with everything that is set out.”

The order bans him, between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. in any public place, including in a vehicle, from having any mask or face covering unless required for medical reasons or by law, and from wearing or carrying black all-in-one garments. It bans him from “crawling, wriggling or writhing on the ground in a public place” while wearing a full-body covering or mask. It bars him from Accommodation Road and restricts his computer and internet use. BBC News reported that he is on the sex offenders’ register while the order lasts.

What Was Never Proved

Avon and Somerset Police said there was insufficient evidence to link Hunt to the sightings before May 2023. The 2019 arrests of two other men led nowhere. Who was in the suit on Chapel Lane in 2019, or in Yatton in 2018, has never been established in court.

Legal Status

Joshua Hunt was convicted at Bristol Magistrates’ Court on October 27, 2023, of two offences of intentionally causing harassment, alarm or distress under section 4A of the Public Order Act 1986, for the Bleadon incidents of May 7 and May 9, 2023. He was fined and ordered to pay compensation and costs. He is subject to a five-year sexual risk order imposed on November 3, 2023. He has not been charged with or convicted of any offence relating to the earlier sightings, and no breach of the order has been reported in the sources reviewed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources