A masked man accused of terrorising lone women in Somerset while dressed in a rubber suit told police “I am not a gimp” but has been found guilty of causing distress.
Joshua Hunt, 32, was allegedly seen “writhing” around on the ground by one woman and another said she was left “shaking and crying” following her alleged encounter with him.
Hunt is on trial at Bristol Magistrates Court accused of public order offences over incidents on May 7 and May 9 in Bleadon, near Weston-super-Mare.
He denies two offences of causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress but was found guilty.
On Friday, magistrates heard minutes after he was arrested on May 9, Hunt told police officers: “I am not a gimp. I do not own a gimp suit. I am not in a gimp suit.”
He was held after Samantha Brown reported seeing a man wearing a face mask dressed all in black when driving a car with her sister-in-law and a colleague as passengers.
“When I saw them, my sister-in-law screamed. I had to speed up to get past them and he jumped to the side of my car,” she said in a statement.
“When I saw the person I felt sheer horror. When I got home I was shaking and crying. I was scared by this person. Anything could have happened, and they had their hands behind their back and they could have been holding anything.”
Ms Brown’s sister-in-law, Chloe Smith, also saw the man and said: “I was scared by what he was doing because it was dark and they were dressed like that.”
Following reports of the incident, the second in as many days, police went to Bleadon and spotted a white Berlingo van reversing in a field and decided to stop it.
Pc Declan Coppock spoke to the defendant, who was wearing grey trousers and a black hooded top, and arrested him. Hunt told him he was not a gimp.
“I noticed his skin was extremely wet and damp, suggesting he had been lying on the side of the road,” the officer said.
Hunt told him: “I am not dangerous, I am a normal person, I have got a few problems.”
Hunt, who was not wearing a T-shirt or underwear, had a collection of wet black clothing, women’s tights, face masks and gloves in his van. There was also neon white paint that had been used to draw on a mask, the court heard. He had been apprehended two days after motorist Lucy Lodge reported seeing a masked individual “writhing and crawling as if in a military fashion” when driving through Bleadon.
She said, in a written statement: “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.
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.”