Naked rambler 'costs taxpayer £100,000'

Published on Thursday 19 April 2007 00:11

THE naked rambler's refusal to wear clothes has cost the taxpayer more than £100,000, his lawyer revealed yesterday.

Most of the bill is believed to have been run up keeping Stephen Gough, 47, in the segregation wing at Saughton prison in Edinburgh for much of the past 18 months.

Legal Aid fees have boosted the total, along with expenses incurred by police and the security firm Reliance. And his latest appeal against a contempt of court charge was heard by five of Scotland's top judges.

John Good, Gough's lawyer, blamed the spiralling costs on a "Mexican stand-off" between his client and the authorities, in which "neither is willing to blink first".

He believes the controversial case could continue draining the public purse for the foreseeable future.

Mr Good, who has represented Gough for eight months, said: "I would say the cost to the taxpayer has been an absolute minimum of 100,000."

Politicians said they were "gobsmacked" by the figures but maintained police officers had a duty to act if Gough threatened to cause offence, particularly to children.

The former Royal Marine has been arrested nine times since September 2005 and been convicted of seven counts of breach of the peace. He has also been hit with contempt of court orders on four occasions.

His most recent arrest came last Thursday when he was found naked in the Grassmarket in Edinburgh, minutes after being acquitted on an earlier charge at the city's sheriff court.