When does public nudity become a crime in the UK?

[iuiuiuats]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8235959.stm

[Pants off]

I have no difficulty with a guy wanting to strip off on a plinth in Trafalgar Square (he's a braver man than me!) but I think we have to recognise that not everybody is going to appreciate it and it's not exactly "art", although there certainly has been a weird assortment of people disporting themselves there over the last few weeks. Good luck to him, but I'm not totally sure it's the right place to do it.

[Agde]

I have no difficulty with a guy wanting to strip off on a plinth in Trafalgar Square, ...but I'm not totally sure it's the right place to do it.

Really??? What could be a more restricted naturist location than a "plinth"??? Perhaps a "pyre"? You know, we naturists are used to people admiring our free spirit and then having us arrested. From plinth to pyre. What are the lyrics? "All Crete was at his feet, All Thrace was in his thrall, All Sparta loved his sweetness, and Gaul, ...so... Speak the spells, Strum the lyre, Toll the bells, Light the pyre." I think the plinth offers a perfect occasion for live nude statuary, and an artful stylish metaphorical platform for any UK naturist. :)

[Stu2630]

There has been at least one formal complaint made against the Met (London's Metropolitan Police) for not stopping this idiot (a self-confessed exhibitionist). The Met are already coming under scrutiny from the new Mayor of London for their general inefficiency and inability to deal with incidents competenly, and one of his first actions was to fire the Commissioner! Iit will be interesting to see what happens.

As to what the law says, the Met Police have got that wrong (as usual!). True, to prove one limb of section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986, you have to prove an "intention" to cause harassment, alarm or distress. But the imbeciles have forgotten that the law was extended in 1993 to include "behaviour which is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress". It was this section that nailed the Naked Rambler, Steve Gough, in his home town of Eastleigh in 2003. I would be struggling to think of anything more "likely" to cause people harassment, alarm or distress" than having a naked man standing around exposing his genitals to them and their children.

I support responsible nudism, not revolting exhibitionism.

Stu

[Petrus]

I am partially in agreement with Stu. I don’t think that non-sexual nudity can in any way be considered indecent, even in public. However anybody who elects to stand on the plinth in Trafalgar Square, whether clothed or nude, must be an exhibitionist and saying, in effect, “Look at me”. It is a moot point whether he had committed a public order offence and each case is very much down to the judgement of individual police officers. Somebody asked whether it meant that you could walk nude down Oxford Street and I suppose the answer is maybe, depending on the police officers present at the time. Justin Holwell may well have set back the public acceptance of harmless nudity, as the vocal minority will press for all public nudity to be made an offence. I think there is a vast difference between somebody, say, putting the rubbish out whilst nude, or cleaning the car nude, or gardening nude in the front garden or walking nude in the countryside compared to somebody putting himself on public display: in all the former examples the nude person is just carry out an everyday task and nudity is peripheral. Whilst I am no great fan of Steve Gough I felt that he created less offence that Justin Holwell, although he did not know when to stop. If Steve Gough had confined his nude walking to England and accepted the requirements of the Scottish Authorities, he would have been home with his family many many months ago

[naturist_norm]

Live and let live.