'Naked Rambler' Faces Life in Jail for Nudity
Letting it all hang out isn't that freeing for the "Naked Rambler." Credit: Peter Macdiarmid, Getty Images
Talk about a bum rap!
Stephen Gough, a 50-year-old Brit with a penchant for walking around naked, has been repeatedly busted for his in-the-buff ways, with Scottish officials telling him that he will spend his life in jail if he keeps refusing to get dressed, the Daily Mail reports.
The stubborn streaker was released from Perth Prison around Christmas, only to be arrested seconds later after refusing to, you guesses it, put on clothes, according to paper.
Now, the "Naked Rambler" has reportedly been found guilty of breaching the peace with his nakedness, and has been cautioned that every time he leaves prison undressed he will be thrown back in the slammer.
Though he was offered bail if he just covered up, the perpetually nude hiker -- who has reportedly spent much of the past seven years in jail for naked-related offenses -- turned down the offer and compared himself to civil rights trailblazer Rosa Parks. Seriously, dude?
"Essentially this is about individual freedom and people's tolerance to other people being different," said Gough -- who the source claims represented himself (naked, of course) in court.
"I understand a lot of people will disagree and have strong feelings about it.
"Walking the amount of miles I have, through towns and cities, it is on the whole a very small moral minority who act in an irrational way. I believe I am behaving in a reasonable way."
"People who have brought great change often have to go to prison first. People often have to go to prison for many years before others see the light."
Simmer down, Gandhi.
Gough is kept in a segregated unit in the prison, and has cost the government more than £200,000, according to the source
He has yet to be sentenced but could face more than 18 months in jail, though, as Sheriff Lindsay Foulis told him, his refusal to get dressed could see him being arrested "again and again and again."
Do you support Gough's pro-nudity stance, or should he be punished until he covers up? Leave a comment!
Meanwhile, Bethenny Frankel is still free to roam the streets after her nude ad.
Shop the hiking attire and gear we recommend for the 'Naked Rambler' next time he goes exploring.
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Rollan McCleary, 1-19-2010, 5:28AM
While there are inevitably a few problems with Steve Gough's radical position on nudity the Scottish legal system is being extremely unreasonable, humourless and threatens to become plain cruel if something like a life sentence will be the outcome of Gough's protests. Especially seeing that Gough had walked all the way through England without incident before he ever arrived at Scotland and encountered its severer attitudes. Especially seeing that it's now legal to be nude in a city like Barcelona and attitudes are changing. If one says Gough is a stubborn exhibitionist, then are perhaps the legal eagles showing themselves too proud to be challenged?
I could wish for him that Gough would just dress enough to get out of Scotland and arrive in other places to tell his unusual story or put his case and let people judge of it. If he won't do that then it does seem to me human rights advocates and nudists should be protesting his situation rather more than they seem to be doing. It's after all extremely unlikely his release or even a change in the laws to more liberal would bring about a situation in which most people, even nudists, would care to be going public au naturel as Gough does. So what, really, is this fuss about that threatens to border on persecution of what's radical individualism. eccentricity of whatever you call it? Is the law going to finish more severe on nudists than all manner of criminals - we all know how lenient sentencing can be today?
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