 Naked
rambler Stephen Gough has been warned he could spend the rest of his
life in jail unless he puts on some clothes. Gough, who has become
notorious for trying to walk around the UK naked, was arrested within
seconds of being freed from Perth Prison on 17 December.
He was found guilty yesterday of breaching the peace by walking naked
in the street and refusing a request by police to put on some clothes.
On the past two occasions when Gough has been released from jail,
officers from Tayside Police were waiting at the prison gates to
re-arrest him.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis told Gough he would not have to be crystal
ball gazing to realise that the same process would occur again
and again and again.
Gough – who has spent the bulk of the past seven years in jail for
identical crimes – yesterday turned down an offer to walk free on
condition that he get dressed.
Foulis told him he would consider granting him bail to go back to his
warmer home county of Hampshire if he agreed to put some clothes
on, but Gough said he would not. A number of your recent convictions
have arisen in similar circumstances, the sheriff said. You have
more or less been apprehended when you have been released from prison. I
suppose it doesn't need an expert in crystal ball gazing to anticipate
that if I impose a custodial sentence then in so many months a similar
scenario will arise. When the day comes for you to be released from a
prison establishment, you will be apprehended and the same process gone
through again.
Gough said he accepted it was potentially the case that he
could remain in jail forever – apart from the few seconds of freedom he
enjoys every six months or so.
During the trial, he compared himself to the African-American civil
rights campaigner Rosa Parks, and said he believed his behaviour was
reasonable. Gough said: Essentially, this is about individual
freedom and people's tolerance to other people being different. 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.
Gough was allowed to conduct his own defence in open court while
completely naked and the sheriff said he would consider whether that was
a contempt of court when he is sentencing. He warned Gough that he could
be jailed for upwards of 18 months.
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A
man known as the Naked Rambler has been cleared of committing a breach
of the peace after leaving Barlinnie Prison on 14 October with no
clothes on.
Scotland's
easy offence at the Naked Rambler has cost tax payers
£500,000
