Overview

• Police records released via a 2018 Freedom of Information request documented multiple calls describing a man in a gimp-style outfit, including a red mask and gaffa tape headgear.
• Following incidents in Cleeve, Claverham and Yatton, and a rapid response to reports in Bleadon, officers arrested landscape gardener Joshua Hunt in 2023.
• On 3 November 2023 a court imposed a five-year Sexual Risk Order on Hunt and placed him on the sex offender register for the same period.
• The order prohibits crawling, wriggling or writhing in public while wearing full-body coverings or masks, with prison possible for breaches as warned by District Judge Joanna Dickens.
• Residents describe lasting fear, altered routines and distress for children, with one woman detailing panic and a year of private counselling and medication; police acknowledged the public impact.