Judge orders ‘Naked Rambler’ to get dressed

The European Court of Human Rights has rejected a final legal challenge brought by a man known as the Naked Rambler, who had claimed he had a right to be nude in public.

Former royal marine Stephen Gough argued that his repeated arrest, prosecution, conviction and imprisonment for public nudity breached his human rights.

However, court judges ruled last October that Gough’s treatment did not breach his right to a private life or freedom of expression, and yesterday they refused him permission to appeal that decision to the Strasbourg court’s highest Grand Chamber.

He has walked naked throughout the UK, from John O’Groats to Land’s End, and is a wellknown campaigner for his right to appear nude in public — even though his actions have often landed him in prison.

He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in October after he walked out of the city’s prison wearing just boots and socks following a previous jail term.

Having been arrested on a public road leading from HMP Perth he later appeared in court naked to plead guilty to breaching the peace and rejected the sheriff’s warnings that he would be held in contempt if he did not put some clothes on.

Gough was handed a term of one year, nine months and 18 days for the breach of the peace and contempt of court.