Former Royal Marine is jailed for breaching Asbo by appearing unclothed in public

Stephen Gough’s long-held personal crusade is that he is entitled to walk the streets in the nude, but he has been convicted of 30 offences in the past 11 years.

Jurors at Winchester Crown Court returned a unanimous guilty verdict within minutes on one charge of breaching an indefinite antisocial behaviour order (Asbo) imposed by Southampton magistrates last year.

It bans Gough from appearing naked in public unless it is in public changing rooms, for a medical examination or on a nudist beach.

Simon Jones, prosecuting, told how when Gough was released from Winchester Prison on April 15 this year he walked on to the busy Romsey Road, naked except for socks and boots, adding: “A clearer breach there couldn’t be.”

PC Rich Moody, sent to meet the 55-year-old outside the prison, told the court how the former Royal Marine declined to put on the tracksuit top and bottoms he offered him.

Interviewed later that day, Gough told police: “It don’t make sense to me.

“I want to live my life in a reasonable way. I am not a robot and have to follow what makes sense to me.”

Former lorry driver Gough, who used to live in Eastleigh, did not have any legal representation and made brief naked appearances in the dock.

Judge Jane Miller QC repeatedly ordered for him to be brought up from the cells to ask if he was prepared to put on clothes so that he could be seen by the jury and take part in the trial.

Each time Gough refused and was taken back down the stairs again.

Passing sentence, Judge Miller suggested that discussions be held to try to find a closed naked community he would be prepared to live in on his next release.

“If there’s a way out of the endless cycle of prison I would like to find it,” she said.

Gough, who had denied the charge, merely sighed in response to his latest sentence and was then returned to jail, where he has already spent a total of about eight years.