(539)  NAKED AMBITION FULFILLED?

?

 

Without quite the fanfare of his first success in 2004 (see Nos 306, 307), Steve Gough the Naked Rambler finally reached John o’Groats together with his girlfriend, the also unclothed Melanie Roberts, on 20 February 2006.  They had spent January having a little holiday back home in England; but on resumption of the nude trek through the north-east of Scotland, there had been two further arrests, one near Dingwall following the complaint of a Kirk minister, and another near Dornoch Bridge.  But on neither occasion were charges pressed, and Gough was released to ramble on in the chilly winter air.  At John o’Groats Gough refused to rule out the possibility of a third attempt to walk the length of Britain in the buff, although he also claimed to be looking forward to a return home to Hampshire.  But Scots law had not quite done with him yet.  On 1 March he was due to face one of the outstanding charges against him in Edinburgh sheriff court (see No 534), but on that day adopted his familiar claim to a right of nudity in court.  The trial did not proceed, and upon Gough’s continued adherence to his attiring position the following day, Sheriff Derrick McIntyre jailed him for two months.  Obviously the learned sheriff found the arguments barely tenable, indeed not even threadbare.