'Naked rambler' free for a minute before being jailed for another 657 days

Naked Rambler Stephen Gough has been jailed for another 657 days after enjoying less than 60 seconds of freedom. The 52-year-old was arrested outside Perth Prison almost immediately after he was released from his previous 21-month sentence. He was found guilty of breaching the peace and being in contempt of court. The former Royal Marine, from Eastleigh in Hampshire, has been behind bars in Scotland for much of the past decade.

He was found guilty of breach of the peace after a trial at Perth Sheriff Court, which was initially held up while court staff found a sheet of brown paper for him to sit on "for hygiene reasons". Gough appeared naked in the court dock and was also found guilty of contempt of court for failing to display the "decency" required by the court process. He claimed that arresting him for walking around naked was a breach of his human rights and his right to freedom of expression.



But Sheriff Michael Fletcher rejected Gough's defence and found him guilty of conducting himself in a disorderly manner by walking naked, refusing to put clothes on, and breaching the peace in Manson Terrace, Perth, on 20 July. Sheriff Fletcher said: "The court expects people to come here in a decent state of dress. That has been explained to you in the past. I gave you the opportunity to dress yourself." Gough earned the title Naked Rambler by walking unclothed from Lands End to John O'Groats after quitting his job as a lorry driver.

He has been repeatedly arrested in the street outside Perth Prison by police waiting for him to be released at the end of each sentence. The latest 657-day sentence - his longest yet - includes the unexpired portion of his last sentence from which he was freed early, a year for breaching the peace and 90 days for contempt of court. Gough said: "What I am doing is based on my belief about what I am and what I am is not indecent. Ordinary people have prejudices and intolerances."