£100k cost of locking up Naked Rambler

NAKED Rambler Stephen Gough has cost the taxpayer more than £100,000 due to his refusal to wear clothes, his lawyer said today.

Most of the bill is believed to have been run up keeping the 47-year-old in the segregation wing at Saughton Prison for much of the past 18 months.

Costs from legal aid have also boosted the total, along with expenses incurred by police and security firm Reliance.

And his latest appeal case against a contempt of court charge was heard by five of Scotland's top judges. Gough's lawyer John Good today blamed the spiralling costs on a "Mexican stand-off" between his client and the authorities, in which "neither is willing to blink first".

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 on Thursday when he was found naked in the Grassmarket just minutes after being acquitted on an earlier charge at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Mr Good, who has represented Gough for the last eight months, said: "It costs thousands of pounds a week to keep someone in segregation and Stephen has been there for about 13 months.

"He's already had four hearings at the Appeal Court in front of judges and eight more pending."

The Scottish Legal Aid Board confirmed Gough has received more than £3000 in assistance so far, with further bills for a similar amount due to be paid.

Mr Good said he had received a total of around £1800 for defending his client. He added: "No lawyer is going to make a fortune from Stephen Gough."

But politicians said that the public had to be protected from offence. SNP justice spokesman Kenny MacAskill said:

"If he ventures into an area where there are children, officers would be failing in their duty not to take action."

Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald said: "I would like to be assured whether he's being willful or maybe he has psychiatric issues to put himself through such discomfort in jail."

And Tory justice spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell said: "I think we have to look at whether legal aid should be given in such cases."

Lothian and Borders Police first arrested Gough in August 2003 walking naked on the Forth Road Bridge. In September 2005, he was arrested on the A701 on his second naked national walk.

Five of his arrests have taken place in the car park of Saughton jail upon release, while he was also charged with stripping off on a plane from Southampton to Edinburgh last year.

A Scottish Prison Service spokesman confirmed Gough was currently on remand in Saughton awaiting trial. Jail bosses said they had no power to ensure he left their custody clothed after completing his sentence.

A police spokeswoman said: "Mr Gough has committed a number of criminal offences by wearing no clothes in public and Lothian and Borders Police have a duty to charge him and let the courts deal with the issue."