Stephen Gough, England's "Naked Rambler", is back in jail after failing to abide by a court order to "at least cover his genitalia and buttocks." Gough, famous for walking the length of Britain naked, spent six years in prison on earlier charges stemming from public nudity; authorities in the UK have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds prosecuting him. [AP]

  • http://www.facebook.com/james.spurrier James Spurrier

    I was hoping they’d get him on tax evasion instead.

  • http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy

    I think he should try a new defence if it hasn’t been tried yet.

    No erection, no obscenity. No lascivious conduct, no obscenity. No excretion/secretion, no obscenity. Farting is allowed.

    So long as he keeps the activities that form the basis of the largest body of reasons for why nudity is obscene private, then he could be free to wander? Serve to educate a bunch of people.

    A decent barrister could do a fine job taking on obscenity with Gough as the subject. 

    Imprisoning a person for significant portions of their life for mere nudity without obscene or lascivious behaviour attached to the nudity has got to be crossing the line somewhere, or the line needs to be moved.

    edit- also he might want to agree to put a fuckin hand towel down when seating himself anyplace public.

    • tacochuck

       Being nude it public is by definition lewd and lascivious. If you just want to be nude, you can be nude in private literally all day long. If you can only enjoy being nude when you are in public there is something else going on.

      • http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy

        Your scenario leaves out those who want to go nude period.

        But also, my post is specifically about questioning nudity as obscenity by examining whether it can justifiably be related among other acts considered lewd and lascivious with intent.

      • Phil Culmer

        The legal definition of indecent exposure in the UK is exposure of the “person” (ie penis) with intent to cause offence. Unfortunately, under the Public Order Act, a police officer can arrest you for looking at him the wrong way.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Being nude it public is by definition lewd and lascivious.

        Do the world a favor and buy a dictionary.

        • eldritch

          My guess is they already spent their allowance for books on a Bible.

  • Douglas Drake

    Well, with no pockets, how could he hide income !!

  • dculberson

    SIX YEARS!!  Hot damn that’s ridiculous.

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/ministry/ Ministry

      Technically not all at once, but he refused to wear clothes when he was released, and the police were waiting outside the prison gate.  Repeat several times

  • oasisob1

    Actually the TSA loves this guy: no need for the scanner or the wand. 

    • SomeGuyNamedMark

      Actually, he could still hide things…

  • tacochuck

     I might be going against the grain here, but I fully support making public nudity illegal in most situations.

    Having dealt with the issue here were I live, when you are out hiking or walking your dog and you see a fully naked person sitting/standing/laying around it can be threatening. It is so out of the ordinary, it usually causes some concern for most people.

    Nude beaches, nudist colonies, whatever, no problem. Naked walking down the street or country side? I’d have to say no thank you, there is just no need to make people feel threatened because you are an exhibitionist.

    • http://ae4rv.com/ royaltrux

      threatening?

      • tacochuck

         Yes, threatening. Just because you would not feel threatened by some naked guy alone in the woods does not mean everyone feels that way.

        My guess is you and most of the folks responding below you are male. Not feeling threatened by a naked man while alone in the woods and being unable to understand how someone could be sounds like a classic case of male privileged to me: “I can’t imagine it so there for it is invalid and doesn’t exist.”

        • OgilvyTheAstronomer

          Sounds like this line of argument could lead to the banning of hoodies, exposed tattoos, facial piercings, controversial messages on T-Shirts and spiky hairstyles, not to mention different ethnicities and/or religious groups having grounds for banning each other from the other’s neighbourhoods.

          The only solution to fear is learning not to fear. And yes, I’m white, male, and up until today thought myself relatively well attuned to the politics of privilege.

        • DreamboatSkanky

          “Just because you would not feel threatened by some naked guy alone in the woods does not mean everyone feels that way.”
          Just because you would feel threatened by some naked guy alone in the woods does not mean everyone feels that way.

        • Stooge

          Hey, you’re the one who thinks only of how you feel threatened while walking your dog without the slightest consideration for those petrified by you and your selectively-bred flesh-ripping slave.

        • Donald Petersen

          Well, then, we gotta ask if people might feel threatened by a naked woman alone in the woods.  Are we banning everyone’s nudity just because the naked guys are scary and we don’t wanna be sexist in our legislation?

          Anyhoo, I’m still confident that the most frightening and intimidating fellas out there are the clothed ones.  Of all the arguments trotted out against public nudity, “scariness”?  Well, it’s a new one on me.

        • Antinous / Moderator

          A lot of people attacked by naked men carrying backpacks where you live?

        • BlackPanda

           You should check out Germany, sometime. :)

          • Antinous / Moderator

            Is there a Nacktwald?

    • EvilSpirit

      I’m not sure I understand how a naked person is a threat.

    • Phil Culmer

      So what do you find so threatening about the human body?

    • Nick Hayday

      Them damn animals better put some clothes on too

    • OgilvyTheAstronomer

      I would feel generally less threatened by someone who is most definitely not concealing a weapon.

    • bzishi

      Let me get this straight, you want to lock people up because you don’t know how to react to something out of the ordinary? But if you did know how to react, you wouldn’t want to lock them up?

    • mickcollins

      naked taco,
      Why not make all public nudity legal, then in a short time it would not be out of the ordinary at all. curb your lascivious desires instead of making it illegal for the behavior you project onto others — the rest of us don’t live in the 19th century.  

      I know, if God had wanted us to be naked, we would have been born that way.

  • Nash Rambler

    Ah, my cousin, Naked Rambler.  He always was the black sheep of the family. Except, you know, without the black fluffy wool.

    • Boundegar

      The black fluffy wool is actually a matter of public record.

      • Nash Rambler

        This leads to an interesting stupid question: if one shaved oneself, turned ones body hair into yarn, knitted garments from said yarn, and then wore the aforementioned garment, would you still be technically naked or technically clothed?

        Gah!  Why am I even thinking about this?!?  I should be playing video games, or even doing my job!

      • Roose_Bolton

        The black fluffy wool is actually a matter of pubic record.

        FTFY

        • Boundegar

          +1

  • Chris Hogan

    A sane legal system would just leave him to go about his business. Is he doing anyone harm by force, fraud or threat? No.
    Catching his death of cold, that’s his lookout.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      If he can comfortably wander around naked in the UK, we should be testing him to see if his blood can be used to develop an anti-chill vaccine.

  • ChuckTV

    http://youtu.be/ZkeFaq33bi4

    Moby Grape~ Naked If I Want To

  • http://jambeeno.com/ Jambe

    Is he thrusting his pelvis at strangers or helicopter-dicking around town squares or something? If not, let the man be. Puritanism should be scourged from the lawbooks.

    OH, WOE, A VISIBLE COCK AND BOOTY!

    I FEEL DAMNATION IMPINGING ON MY IMMORTAL SOUL!

    • Donald Petersen

      LOL at “helicopter-dicking.”  Don’t believe I’ve done that since I was eight. Have to see if I remember how.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        I could post some video links if you like.

  • http://www.bn.org.uk/ Brian Taylor; British Naturism

    The real thing that Steve Gough has exposed is just how close we are to being a police state.  There is no law against what he has done, nor should there be as he has harmed no-one.  However, the police have decided that there should be a law against it and having recently had a number of failures trying to use their old favourite, section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 – a catch-all for anything they don’t like – they choose to obtain an ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order) which creates a special anti-nudity law for Mr Gough and Mr Gough alone, knowing that, given his record, he will ignore the conditions imposed by the ASBO and therefore open up the possibility of a prison sentence of up to 5 years for breach of his ASBO.

    This is the police making up the law as they go in order to suit their personal prejudice.  The police are supposed to serve the public with the permission of the public and parliament are supposed to set the law, not the police.  First nudity, next it could be hoodies or a hairstyle they don’t like or looking at them in the ‘wrong’ way whatever that might be.  Where will this police state end?