HAMPSHIRE'S Naked Rambler Stephen Gough has vowed to quit his nude crusade to care for his ill mother, it has been revealed.

The ex-Marine from Hampshire - who has refused to wear clothes in public for over 10 years - has announced he is putting his clothes back on again so that he can walk with his elderly and frail mum without getting arrested.

Today's revelation comes just three months after his latest stint in jail following another spell of public nudity.

Gough, 57, from Eastleigh, has spent most of the last 10 years in jail for persistently hiking in the nude as part of his one-man protest against laws restricting public nudity.

The dad-of-two famously trekked from Land's End to John O'Groats in 2003 wearing nothing but his rucksack, hat and walking boots.

But now he says he will be turning his back on that lifestyle so he can peacefully take out his mum Nora, 89, who is battling dementia.

He said: "At the moment what’s appropriate is looking after my mum — she needs 24-hour care.

"If she wants to go for a wander, I’ll get dressed and go with her whatever time it is.

"Obviously I’m clothed when I’m doing all this — I’d get arrested if I wasn’t and then she’d have no one to look after her.”

He added that she had also suffered a stroke and said: "She’s gradually getting worse. I need to be here. I had to respond to what was necessary.

“Rambling was about freedom — it was never about being naked.”

Mr Gough first started walking the length of Britain in 2003, campaigning for freedom of all kinds.

He was locked up several times as he tried a repeat of the Land's End to John O'Groats trip two years later with then girlfriend Melanie Roberts.

But Scottish police later turned a blind eye, allowing him to return to England in 2012.

He arrived back at Nora’s house the following year.

But the ex-lorry driver still continued his naked walks and prison terms.

Most of his prison stints were in solitary confinement due to his refusal to wear clothes.

He was freed in January after a stretch for breaching a no-nudity Asbo.

In 2012, ex-lover Alison Ward said of the dad of two: “He chose nakedness over his children.”