UK Naked - Naked walker continues with trek through UK despite arrests
TAPE: EF03/0714
IN_TIME: 22:57:37
DURATION: 1:04
SOURCES: SKY
RESTRICTIONS: UK/CNNi/Internet
DATELINE: Near Walkerburn - 8 Aug 2003
SHOTLIST
1. Various Steve Gough walking along country path
2. Various Gough reading map
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Steve Gough, Naked hiker
"I think this is a really important issue, it's about ourselves as human beings, you know are we indecent, obscene, offensive, our body's part of us for heavens sake."
4. Various Gough walking along country path and passing through gate
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Steve Gough, Naked hiker
"Generally people are very British about it. I've had people that are really impressed by what I'm doing, buying me food, giving me money, because at one time I had no money and they've walked with me chatted with me, patted me on the back and say, 'Yeah I wish I could do the same.'"
6. Gough taking his socks off
7. Close up Gough's feet
8. Gough examining feet
STORYLINE
A naked hiker attempting to walk the length of Britain said on Friday that he was determined to complete his journey despite being arrested eight times, examined at a psychiatric hospital and spending several nights in jail.
Steve Gough's trek aims to celebrate the joys of nudity.
But his 847-mile (one thousand and 363-kilometre) trek has been hampered his brushes with the law.
This week, he started again after Scottish police shipped him back to his starting point in the southern British country of Cornwall for a court appearance.
But the 44-year-old father of two is undaunted and hitchhiked his way back to Scotland - though he did wear clothes to increase his chances of getting a lift.
Gough left Land's End in southwest England on June 16 bound for John O'Groats in the far north of Scotland, hoping to cover around 20 miles (32 kilometres) a day on foot.
One day and 15 miles (25 kilometres) later, he was arrested in St. Ives in Cornwall and and charged with breach of the peace.
The case was later abandoned after magistrates found he had not committed a criminal offence.
Three days later he was arrested in the Cornish coastal resort of Newquay and charged with offending public decency.
He appeared stark naked in court on Monday, having been returned from Scotland.
The court forced him to wear a blanket but did not impose a fine.
The intrepid hiker insists he is not a naturist, but a human being who wants to "enlighten the public, as well as the authorities that govern us, that the freedom to go naked in public is a basic human right".
Apart from being beaten up in St. Ives on June 18, and told by a farmer in Yorkshire to "put on your trousers", Gough said public reaction had been largely positive.
The hiker, who dons clothes at night to keep warm, says he first became involved in naturism 10 years ago when he visited a nudist beach.
He says that eventually alienated his partner, the mother of his children aged five and seven.
The truck driver hopes to finish his trek by September - barring further run-ins with police.
There is no law in Britain against public nudity, although there are laws against indecent exposure - which requires proof of intent to insult a woman - or any behaviour likely to cause "harassment, alarm or distress".
According to the British Naturism society, there are some two (m) million naturists in Britain.
Wacky