http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/14525315.PICTURED__Who_is_the_naked_rambler__Man_takes_walk_on_the_wild_side_at_Bolton_beauty_spot/
The best bit about this one is the paragraph near the end which actually gets the law right!
peter
Actually in the most important aspect, they aren't right about the law, though if everyone believed what the paper said, we'd be better off. What they said was:
In England and Wales it is not an offence to be naked in public but it does become an offence if it can be proved that the person stripped off with the intention to upset and shock. That's true for Section 4A of the Public Order Act, "Intentional harassment, alarm or distress". But they're ignoring Section 5, which says:
A person is guilty of an offence if he uses threatening or abusive words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour... within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby.It's always seemed to me as if that section's existence makes section 4A irrelevant, because there's no mention of deliberate intent in it, so the claimed harm to the viewer might or might or might not be deliberate but could be illegal either way. Anyway, Section 5 has indeed been used successfully to prosecute people for being naked in public, though sometimes people haven't been convicted or managed to get off on appeal. Both Richard Collins and Steven Gough have been convicted under Section 5, and this guy in Bolton could end up getting hit with it too. Unfortunately the law in England and Wales isn't entirely benign, and Scotland is worse.
