6 days ago
Naked man in gimp mask hunted by police
A man who was filmed naked but for a gimp mask and black and white trainers on residential streets is being hunted by police.
Video shared widely online shows the individual walking among homes in Lytham, Lancs, in the early hour of the morning.
Lancashire Constabulary said the incident took place at about 12.50am on July 18 in the area of Westby Street, Cleveland Road and Bannister Street.
'We are aware of a concerning video circulating on social media of a naked male wearing a face covering walking around Lytham in the early hours of the morning,' a force spokesman said.
'This incident was not initially reported to police and has only been brought to our attention after it has been viewed on Facebook.
'Fylde Rural Task Force are currently conducting CCTV and house-to-house inquiries and would like to reassure you that we are taking this matter seriously.'
'Panther man'and the 'Somerset Gimp'
Last month, there were sightings of a mysterious black-clad figure wearing a mask prowling outside a pub in a Merseyside seaside town last month.
The figure, dubbed 'panther man' by residents, was filmed wriggling under fences near the Derby Pool Harvester in Wallasey on the Wirral.
Some residents said they believed he could be similar to Joshua Hunt, known as the 'Somerset Gimp', who menaced residents in the county on at least 25 separate occasions over five years before he was stopped in 2023.
In November that year, Hunt was banned from 'crawling, wriggling or writhing on the ground' in a full-body suit for five years.
In Wallasey, the mysterious 'panther man' was described as an 'urban jaguar', 'banshee', and a 'gimp', dressed in a dark figure-hugging suit and a cat mask.
Abbie Gilbert told The Telegraph how she 'heard a man making cat noises' and shone her torch to find the figure 'waving his arms at me before crawling up the hill' while she was out walking her dog.
'I didn't really find him to be a threat, just a bit bizarre. He didn't approach me, he just made some weird poses and then scarpered off,' she said.
