Perth Sheriff Court, where Gough was given an additional 90 days' imprisonment for contempt. Photo: David Hawgood CC-BY-SA-2.0
The man dubbed the Naked Rambler is back behind bars and facing more than 21 months in prison after refusing to put on clothes.
Former Royal Marine Stephen Gough was jailed at Perth Sheriff Court for a breach of the peace after just one minute of freedom following his release from the town’s prison.
The 52-year-old was rearrested and brought before the court by police waiting outside the jail.
His sentence includes an added 90-days’ imprisonment for contempt of court for failing to display the decency required at his hearing, along with the unexpired part of his previous sentence after his early release.
Gough has twice managed to complete a walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats, but only after frequent arrests. He has faced repeated detentions in Scotland which has more stringent decency laws than England and Wales.
At his last appearance before Sheriff Lindsay Foulis at Perth Sheriff Court in February 2010 he was told: “A number of your recent convictions have arisen in similar circumstances. If I impose a custodial sentence then in so many months’ time a similar scenario will arise.”
He was jailed this time by Sheriff Michael Fletcher who found him guilty of conducting himself in a disorderly manner by walking naked, refusing to put clothes on, and breaching the peace in a street in Perth.
Gough claims it is his human right to walk naked. At last year’s hearing, he likened himself to American black civil rights campaigner Rosa Parks who famously refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, was the catalyst for the black emancipation movement in the United States.
Mark Noph
24 August 2011What a waste of public money, for a man who has harmed no-one, and is no danger to anyone. Everyone has seen a naked person, many on a daily basis, and no one person is harmed by doing so.
geobro
25 August 2011its 3000 pounds per month to keep him in jail . why didnt the police run him home if they were so worried about the public being shocked by a naked man . let mr gough out on a winters morning he would soon dress in minus 10 +
alpew
25 August 2011Can't believe Scotland is still targeting him after so many years, what a waste of money. Leave the poor bloke alone and go and find some proper criminals.
If they did realease him in winter geobro, and he wasn't wearing any clothes, there would be nothing to see anyway!!
Tom
25 August 2011This guy has been jailed for longer than some rioters.
It would be hilarious, if it wasn't such a serious abuse of the police power, and waste of time and money.
Ian Beswick
25 August 2011They should pin a medal on him.Oh! er? Perhaps not! But i fail too see how being as "God made us " is indecent?
R Webb
25 August 2011The chance to release this idiot has been lost. He should have been chucked out of the jail in last December.
I object strongly to my money being wasted on this silly spat between two stupid parties, both to stubborn to stand down.
Next cold spell - kick him out of his cosy cell, preferably in Peterhead.
Stabvest
27 August 2011Stephen Gough is a selfish exhibitionist, thriving on the attention he gets and to hell with any upset he causes.
His behaviour may be jolly japes for the doilies and tea set of Bearsden and “fascist police” fodder for liberals in Kelvinbridge, but it’s no joke for those areas dependent on tourism.
Gough’s antics often grossly offend visitors whose custom the locals livelihoods depend on, and cannot afford to have their area being labelled on internet holiday websites as “not recommended: has an aged naked pervert wandering around”.
The price of being part of society is to live by that society’s rules until such times as they are changed.
It is not to subject society to constant attack in the hope that everyone else will give in to you like some spoilt child screaming in the shop for sweets.
The law is right to put Gough behind bars and to do so in solitary confinement as a punishment fitting the crime.
If this waste of space wants to remain there for life, good riddance to bad rubbish.
Harold
27 August 2011Abolish these ridiculous nudity laws. A naked body looks better than alot of the hideous clothing people wear !!!!!!
People should have freedom not oppression. There is NOTHING wrong with the naked body !!!!!!!!!!
Dex
27 August 2011If I saw that idiot on the street and I had my kids with me...he would be wearing red...
Walter
27 August 2011I lookes at myself in the mirror - naked! Oh mY!, but I saw nothing wrong.
Jack
27 August 2011Society seems to want to be the law for the planet,not the law itself!,everyone on this planet came into this existance naked and will leave this existance clothed because society says so!.Who the HECK is society?,I am society,you are society,gough is society,He is only rebelling against society as I did back in the sixties and alot of pressure on the single minded idiots in society got the laws changed.Nudists in my eyes is a beutiful thing,GOD made our bodies to behold and sanctify,society are only giving in to satan.
ustahli hollifield
28 August 2011go naked
common sense
28 August 2011you missed the part that said he was a royal marine dex? I bet this cat would wreck you
Alan Hennessy
09 September 2011Totally outrageous that he should be imprisonned. Its not as if he has actually hurt anyone. In fact he has walked naked over large parts of the Britain and it is only in Scotland that he has serious problems with the legal system. Almost everywhere else it has been sorted out fairly quickly, no-one has really been offended and he has been released from the judicial system to continue on his way - naked.
He is an eccentric - not a criminal and does not deserve this treatment. It doesn't say much for the level of tolerance in Scotland that they have now given him another 2 years in prison for being naked. It puts me off the place.
Can't he be transfered to a jail in a more tolerant area of Britain, so when he is next released he is more likely to be left alone ??? I'm so shocked by this I'm thinking of starting / joining a campaign to highlight his plight.
Kelly
10 September 2011Does the Scottish justice system consider a person wearing a kilt without briefs naked, clothed semi-clothed or part legal?
May I remind the Scottish Sheriff that Justice has to be FAIR to ALL parties and not meted out from vengeance... as it seems to be this case of harsh treatment.
This is not a case of who is right because both the law and the defendant are both right and wrong. Some people may be offended some people may not be offended.
So here we have two obstinate forces going one against the other for which there will be no winner.
The naked rambler will put up with any mud slung at him and the Crown Court will be the bully who can not show loss of face.
In due course the court becomes an ass and the naked rambler becomes a Martyr.