Joshua Hill admitted dressing as a gimp and frightening people on two occasions (Picture: BBC/SWNS)
Two victims of the Somerset Gimp have said they are ‘terrified’ the creep behind some of the disturbing encounters may still be at large – despite a recent conviction.
Samantha Farmer and Chloe Smith believe Joshua Hunt, who was fined after admitting he was the man in the startling plastic costume who terrorised people in the West Country, may have been a copycat.
The pair had been driving along a country lane near Bleadon, north Somerset, on a May night when they encountered the gimp.
Hunt, 32, was standing in the middle of the road in a full-body skin-tight black outfit, including a mask with a scary face he had drawn with a glow-in-the-dark pen.
In a trial earlier this year, police revealed he had made internet searches in 2022 and 2023 about the ‘Somerset Gimp’ and the ‘Gimp of Cleeve’.
The original sightings of the gimp date back to 2018.
Samantha, a mother of two, told the Daily Star: ‘I know he has been convicted but I think Joshua Hunt is a copycat. The real Somerset Gimp could still be out there.
‘Having seen previous videos and pictures of the so-called Somerset Gimp, it just looks like a different body shape, a different man.
‘I’m terrified the real gimp still out there. Near my home, targeting us. I have flashbacks all of the time. I have nightmares.’
Joshua Hunt admitted wearing the outfit on two incidents – but insisted he was ‘not a gimp’ after being arrested (Picture: SWNS)
Police discovered Hunt’s gimp gear (Picture: Avon and Somerset Constabulary/SWNS)
Speaking to the newspaper, Chloe, 23, said she was concerned the original gimp ‘could know where we live’, with Samantha revealing they had both quit their jobs because the memory of the incident was impacting them too much.
Hunt was convicted of two offences under the Public Order Act of intentionally causing harassment, alarm or distress and told Bristol magistrates’ court: ‘The outfit I wear is not anything to do with the gimp.’
The gardener was banned for five years from dressing in the suit in public at night and ‘crawling, wriggling or writhing on the ground’.
He was also prevented from wearing any type of mask or face covering unless for medical reasons, and must pay £200 to each of three victims on top of a £100 fine.
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The original gimp could still be lurking in the shadows.