SHOULD a person spend their life behind bars just for getting their kit off in public? The question has arisen following so-called Naked Rambler Stephen Gough being arrested within seconds of being freed from Perth jail in Scotland last month after he left the prison starkers.

He was found guilty of causing a breach of the peace and warned he faces jail every time he steps out of prison in the buff.

Gough, from Bournemouth, hit the headlines in 2003 when he was famously arrested 15 times during a ramble from Land’s End to John O’ Groats wearing nothing but boots, socks, a rucksack and, occasionally, a hat.

Some would argue the authorities are massively over-reacting to what many believe is a harmless lifestyle choice and others even argue is a human right.

And surely police time would be better spent apprehending muggers and paedophiles?

When Gough cycled naked from Eastleigh to Bournemouth in 2006 the public reaction was more amusement than shock.

Motorists sounded their horns while passers-by said they thought it was “funny”.

However, the police response was more like the hunt for a serial killer with police cars sent to cut Gough off at key junctions and the police helicopter scrambled.

The New York Times’s London correspondent, Sarah Lyall, has included the story of naked protestor, Vincent Bethell, in her book, A Field Guide to the English, which celebrates British attitudes, eccentricities and traditions.

In the late 1990s Vincent Bethell conducted his first naked protest accompanied by a handful of friends in Picadilly Circus.

Bethel was arrested and released when he put on some clothes but continued to strip off in public.

He was deemed sane by a prison psychiatrist.

At one point a judge conducted a hearing through his cell door after Bethel refused to dress.

Bethel said as an art student he was struck by how difficult it was to maintain a mature attitude when confronted with nude models in the life-drawing class.

“I thought, this is interesting that people have such a strange reaction to something that should be quite normal – the human body,” he said.

Under English law nudity in public is not illegal in itself but it would be an offence if being naked in public caused a breach of the peace or caused people to be harassed, alarmed or distressed, said a Dorset Police spokesman.

In 2007, however, naturists accused Dorset Police of a “heavy-handed” response to a naked coastal ramble where 20 walkers were chaperoned in shifts for 20 miles along the Jurassic Coast coastal path to Lulworth cove.

Naturist, Chris Lamb, originally from Bournemouth, who joined Gough on a naked ramble, said: “It’s no longer an offence but police still seem to believe it is. I think it’s bad training or just that they feel that they have got to do something.”

Describing the public’s reaction during the ramble, he said: “Some would stop and chat and joke ‘that looks like a wonderfully cool way of walking’. There are very, very, few people these days who are upset or outraged by it.”

Nudity is not a problem in the appropriate setting – obviously not outside a school and probably not if you were walking down the high street, he added.

“Certainly personal freedom is very important. In general people should be free to be as they please providing it’s not harming other people. It’s a question of context,” he said.

Referring to Gough he added: “It seems a terrible tragic waste for that to happen. It really shouldn’t be necessary but I can understand why the Scottish authorities get so upset. They feel their authority is being challenged.”