Naked rambler is behind bars, hours after court case

The decision by a crusading naturist to turn the other cheek and continue a naked ramble across Britain just hours after he was admonished in court ended with him back behind bars last night.

Yesterday Stephen Gough walked free from Dingwall Sheriff Court after being found guilty of disorderly conduct and a breach of the peace for his attempt to walk naked from Land's End to John O'Groats .

By dusk last night unemployed Gough, 44, from Eastleigh in Hampshire was stopped again by police on the Cromarty Bridge, between the Black Isle and Evanton, in Ross-shire, in the Highlands.

It was the latest in a series of arrests the naturist has endured since he attempted to prove to society the naked human form was acceptable.

During the two-hour trial, at which he represented himself wearing only a blue blanket around his waist, Gough broke down crying as he explained he did not intend to offend anyone.

"As society moves on I think people are getting used to seeing a naked body," he said. "I expected people to be offended but I try and believe that people have the right to their own beliefs. I do not feel people have got the right to stop me from expressing my beliefs by picking up the phone, calling the police and having me put in prison."

The court heard that Kathleen MacDonald, 52, who lives near a wooded area in Tore, Ross-shire, where Gough was arrested on 27 August, had been "quite intimidated" by the rambler outside her cottage.

Procurator fiscal Roderick Urquhart said that although he accepted Gough had not sought to impose his beliefs on others his actions had done just that.

After finding the charges proven, Sheriff Alistair MacFadyen warned Gough, who has no previous convictions and only £150 to his name, that future court appearances could result in more serious penalties.