'Naked Rambler' Wants Junk Laws To Change After 7 Years In Prison

'Naked Rambler' Wants Junk Laws To Change After 7 Years In Prison
PEEBLES, SCOTLAND - OCTOBER 06: (EDITOR'S NOTE: Image contains nudity) Stephen Gough the naked rambler makes his way south through the Scottish Borders, following his release from Saughton Prison yesterday after serving his latest sentence on October 6, 2012 in Peebles, Scotland. The rambler has 18 convictions and has been in prison on and off since 2006 with offences ranging from not wearing clothes in front of the sheriff, breach of the peace and contempt of court. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
PEEBLES, SCOTLAND - OCTOBER 06: (EDITOR'S NOTE: Image contains nudity) Stephen Gough the naked rambler makes his way south through the Scottish Borders, following his release from Saughton Prison yesterday after serving his latest sentence on October 6, 2012 in Peebles, Scotland. The rambler has 18 convictions and has been in prison on and off since 2006 with offences ranging from not wearing clothes in front of the sheriff, breach of the peace and contempt of court. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

STRASBOURG France (Reuters) - A British man who has spent a total of seven years in jail for going naked in public lost his legal battle to wear no clothes on Tuesday as Europe's human rights court told him he must respect the feelings of others.

Stephen Gough, dubbed "The Naked Rambler" by British media for his bid to trek the length of the country wearing no more than a hat and bulky rucksack, has faced some 30 convictions for public order disturbances and other offences.

Gough argued that European laws on respect for private life and freedom of expression gave him the right to nudity whenever he chose it. But the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that they did not apply given his "deliberately repetitive antisocial conduct".

"He had plenty of other ways of expressing his opinions," it concluded.

(Reporting by Gilbert Reilhac, writing by Mark John; Editing by Nick Vinocur)

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