Stephen Gough: Difference between revisions

Stephen Peter^[2] Gough (born 13 May 1959),^[3] popularly known as the "Naked Rambler", is a British activist and former Royal Marine and prisoner of conscience.^[4] In 2003–04, he walked the length of Great Britain naked, but was arrested when he did it again in 2005-06. Since then he has spent most of the intervening years in prison, having been repeatedly rearrested for contempt of court for public nudity, each time within a short period after release. Gough stands 6'4" tall^[5] and has served most of his sentences in Saughton Prison and Perth Prison in Scotland.^[6]

Gough, an ex-lorry driver, is from Eastleigh, Hampshire, and is known for walking the length of Great Britain from Land's End to John o' Groats over 2003 and 2004 wearing only boots, socks, a rucksack and sometimes a hat. He was arrested and imprisoned on numerous occasions during the course of his ramble.

His second Land's End to John o' Groats ramble was in 2005 and 2006 and accompanied by his girlfriend Melanie Roberts (born 1971 or 1972^[7]). He was arrested twice in England but almost immediately released. Upon entering Scotland, he was arrested several times, the current total being over 20 including contempt of court after he appeared naked before a judge. His website claimed that ordering him to wear clothes for his court appearance "breached Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights" – Right to a Fair Trial. He claimed that Articles 3 and 5 to 11 had been repeatedly breached by the authorities since he and Melanie had arrived in Scotland. He served a three-month sentence in Saughton Prison. The walk was resumed on 12 February 2006, and completed shortly after on Monday 20 February the same year. The Guardian newspaper congratulated the couple on completing their journey, stating that they were practicing gymnosophy in the tradition of people such as George Bernard Shaw.^[8]

Gough was involved with the public nudity advocacy group The Freedom to be Yourself.^[9]

Gough was arrested again on 19 May 2006 at Edinburgh Airport after removing his clothes during a flight from Southampton to Edinburgh and refusing to get dressed.^[10] On 25 August 2006 he was given a seven-month jail sentence.^[11] On 9 April 2007 Gough was cleared of charges related to his refusal to dress upon being released into Saughton Prison car park in Edinburgh. The ruling judge, Isobel Poole, found that there was no evidence of "actual alarm or disturbance", adding "I can understand this conduct could be considered unpleasant to passers-by had there been any but there is a lack of evidence to that effect."^[12] In November 2007, Gough lost his appeal against contempt of court convictions for refusing to wear clothes during his 2005 trial and had another 3 months added to his sentence.^[13]

In January 2008, after spending most of the previous 20 months in jail (being rearrested for nudity each time he was released and each time he appeared in court), Gough was released and told that if he went for three months without appearing naked in public he would not be returned to jail for outstanding convictions; two hours later he left the court naked and was immediately re-arrested and subsequently returned to jail.^[14] Gough served his time in Barlinnie Prison and was released on 14 October 2008, when he was again immediately arrested for leaving the prison naked. On 14 November, he was cleared of that offence on the grounds of insufficient evidence, but appeared in the dock naked and was rearrested in the foyer of Glasgow Sheriff Court.^[15] On 18 December he was convicted of a breach of the peace and sentenced to a further 12 months.^[16]

In July 2009, Gough, once again standing in the dock naked, was jailed at Perth for a further 12 months for breach of the peace. Sheriff MacFarlane was told that the bill for dealing with Gough had cost the public an estimated several hundred thousand pounds. The court heard how Gough had finished a previous jail term at Perth Prison and was released to enjoy freedom for the first time in several months. His freedom lasted less than 30 seconds after he walked naked from the prison door to Edinburgh Road. Gough was also sentenced to four months for refusing to dress before the trial.^[17]

While in jail in Perth, on 6 July 2009, Stephen Gough received a visit from two members of the French Association pour la promotion du naturisme en liberté (Association for the Promotion of Naturism in Liberty), which is tracking his activities.^[18] On 8 February 2010 Gough was convicted of breach of the peace and contempt of court, charges relating to walking naked in Perth and appearing naked in court. He was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment, his longest sentence to date.^[19]

On 25 November 2010 he was found guilty of: on 26 October 2010, conducting himself in a disorderly manner, standing naked at the gates of Perth Prison, refusing to wear any clothing or otherwise cover his genitals and committing a breach of the peace. He was sentenced to 15 months and 26 days. He is understood to spend his time in prison in solitary confinement.^[20] He was released on 20 July 2011, but immediately rearrested after leaving the prison naked, and received another 657-day sentence.^[21]

When that sentence concluded on 17 July 2012, he left the prison naked again, but this time the police allowed him to go on his way.^[22] Three days later, on 20 July, he was rearrested by Fife Police for a breach of the peace in Townhill.^[23]

On 13 September 2012 he was sentenced to five months in prison. He had refused to allow social workers to assess his mental health^[24] after he broke down in court during an appearance on 23 August.

Released in early October 2012, he walked from Saughton to Edale, Derbyshire during October, continuing across the English border down the Pennine Way to Edale by 31 October, with two arrests en route in Hebden Bridge and Halifax. Released on bail, he continued to walk south and was due back in Court on 5 February 2013 to face public order charges.^[25] He was arrested in Carterton, Oxfordshire, on suspicion of outraging public decency on 4 December and was then refused bail and spent Christmas 2012 in jail after his application for bail was refused.^[26]

In 2012 Gough won the Nicolás Salmerón Human Rights Award from the Spanish human rights group, Fundación Internacional de Derechos Humanos.^[27][28][29]

On 19 June 2013 Gough was imprisoned for 11 months for breaching an antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) on 28 February minutes after it was granted, having recently returned home. Gough was not allowed to appear in court as he refused to wear clothes.^[30][31] In January 2014 he was again jailed for breaching his ASBO this time with a sentence of 16 months .^[32] On his release from Winchester Prison he walked out wearing only footwear, once again breaching the ASBO, and in October 2014 he was sentenced to a further two and a half years in prison.^[33]

On 28 October 2014, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that European laws protecting privacy and freedom of expression did not apply to Gough's naked rambling.^[34]

On 14 August 2015 Stephen Gough was released from Winchester prison. At around 6:30am he got into a car inside the prison grounds and was transported from Winchester to Sussex. On his release from prison, The Sunday Times, described him as a previous 'prisoner of conscience.'^[4]

Daniel Finkelstein wrote about Gough and his practice of unlimited naturism in The Times just before Christmas 2015:

Our standards of modesty and decency have changed so much and so rapidly that it is hard to believe that they won’t change further, making complete nudity perfectly normal. In anticipating this, Stephen Gough is not dotty, he is just slightly ahead of the rest of us. And when he puts his case to be allowed his nudity, it is hard to resist. The rest of us are the dotty ones, insisting upon dress for which there frankly isn’t a reasonable argument. Yet he should still go to jail.^[35]

In Finkelstein's opinion: "The refusal of individuals to abide by court rulings is deeply injurious to a free society based upon law, and we have to protect ourselves against it."^[35]

A comedic theatrical production invoking Gough's initial naked ramble of 2003–2004 titled Who Bares Wins was produced by Scottish theatre company Right Lines Productions in 2004. The play, written by Euan Martin and Dave Smith and directed by Mark Saunders, followed the Rambler on his journey through the Scottish countryside and his numerous stints in Scottish prisons.

Set against the backdrop of a remote community eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Rambler for its own reasons, Who Bares Wins explores society’s wide range of attitudes to nudity.^[36] The play, starring Ron Emslie and Alyth McCormack, toured Scotland and was seen by Gough himself, without clothes on, at The Universal Hall, Findhorn, in 2004.^[37]

• Andrew Martinez
• Clothes free organizations
• Naked hiking
• Naturism and Nudism
• Streaking
• Timeline of significant non-sexualized public nudity activities

• Steve Gough's official site Retrieved from Internet Archive 5 February 2014.
• BBC article about Steve Gough, following his first successful walk.
• BBC article about Steve Gough, following his second successful walk.
• The naked rambler is making us look silly | Andrew Anthony | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
• The Naked Rambler: the man prepared to go to prison for nudity | Neil Forsyth | guardian.co.uk
• The Naked Rambler: BBC documentary
• European Court of Human Rights judgment