|
Not very encouraging news. Neighbourly "feuds" is one thing, but this is quite another and not unlike the dispute in Wales which, for the female nurse enjoying her garden naked, had quite a different outcome. She was acquitted of 'Exposure'...
Feud in nude brings Asbo and £500 fine for naked gardener
Grace Hammond
MOWING the lawn in the nude cost a Scarborough man £900 yesterday and his second Anti-Social Behaviour Order.
Yan
Price, 31, of Scholes Park Road, was found guilty of indecent exposure
after he taunted his neighbours as part of a long-running feud.
In
the latest incident, described at York Crown Court, Price appeared
naked in front of his next door neighbour in July last year. The
upholstery manager maintained he had been mowing with a towel around
his waist and that it had fallen down, but the jury did not believe him.
Judge
Peter Benson ordered that he pay a £500 fine and £400 towards
prosecution costs and told him to keep his clothes on outside his home
for the next 12 months.
North Yorkshire Police officers Tracy and
Paul Rogers and a female neighbour, who cannot be named, were said to
have experienced problems with Price since he moved in with a long-term
partner in May, 2004.
The court was told that last June Price was visited by police for sunbathing naked in his back garden following complaints.
But
Price, already the subject of an anti-social behaviour order for
threatening the Rogers' children, stripped off to mow his lawn.
Howard
Shaw, prosecuting, said a female neighbour heard Price start the
lawnmower and looked out to see Price wearing a pair of shorts. Later
she saw Price using the mower naked and bending down repeatedly. She
said: "It was as if he was testing us."
Price was acquitted of
breaching his previous Asbo, imposed by Scarborough magistrates in
2004, which banned him from making contact with Mr and Mrs Rogers
directly or indirectly.
After being told that he was the only person
in the country with an Asbo banning him from public nudity, Price said:
"I'm very comfortable with my own body and often walk around naked, I
don't see a problem with that. I do not intend to cause offence, I do
it for me."
03 February 2007
|
And this from the Metro is far from helpful:
Man charged with nude gardening
Thursday, February 1, 2007
A man has gone on trial accused of gardening in the nude.
30-year-old Yan Price appeared in York Crown Court on Tuesday, where
the court heard claims that his neighbours were shocked to see him
mowing the lawn entirely naked.
One neighbour, a young mother, said: 'I felt intimidated. You could see everything.'
'She could see the defendant out in the garden
and he wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing. He was completely naked
using the lawnmower,' said Howard Shaw, prosecuting.
Price's neighbours have complained about him
sunbathing in the nude before, during an alleged two-year feud which
saw Price given an Asbo preventing him from speaking to his neighbours.
He is also charged with breaching that Asbo.
Price denied the charges of indecent exposure,
claiming that he had merely been mowing the lawn wearing a towel when,
as he tried to fix a fault with the machine, his towel slipped off.
|
I don't see how gardening nude can, by anyone's reckoning, be the subject of an anti-social behaviour order.
It is my understanding that the offence of "indecent exposure" has been repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and that "intent" to cause "alarm and distress" would need to be proved before a conviction results. Knowing that your neighbours object to your nudity is not an issue - "knows" was specifically removed from the 'Exposure' draft before s66 became law.
At the time of the original complaint regarding nude sunbathing, and the police visit, it should have been established that Price was within his rights, and his neighbours advised accordingly. That may have removed the cause of further feuding - his police neighbours should know this.
It is difficult to understand why the young woman who, after hearing the lawnmower start, "looked out to see Price wearing a pair of shorts", should choose to look again to see him mowing his grass naked - especially as neighbourly relations had been far from friendly. Was she looking for something to complain about? Clothes-free is how many naturists in the UK choose to attend their gardens - including this author - and rarely does anyone get this kind of response. The naturist gardeners of Abbey House Gardens have even featured on TV!
Being "taunted" is purely subjective - and in the mind of the nosey neighbour - try mowing grass without bending over "repeatedly"! Why did she keep looking?
Importantly, Price's previous ASBO was not breached but his right to dress as he chooses in his own garden when going about his lawful business, appears not to have been given the due consideration by the judge it deserves.
Naturists UK intends to find out more about this case, and, if appropriate, recommend an appeal is lodged.
The matter of neighbours feuding is something altogether different and we would not advocate people antagonising their neighbours over any matter, but if someone chooses to look into their neighbour's garden, and chooses to be offended by someone's natural state, that's their problem. And how does one resolve issues with neighbours when given an Asbo banning all contact with them? Especially when they are police officers? Do police need the protection of an Asbo from their neighbours? Shouldn't they be able to reach an amicable solution between themselves?
Price might be the only person with an Asbo banning him from public nudity, but he might not be the last and that is something that should concern us all. What happens in 12 months time when the Asbo expires? This does appear to be an abuse of Price's human rights.
We'll let you know how we get on.
Submitted by Administrator on
Saturday, 3rd February 2007
Last modified by Administrator on
Monday, 5th February 2007
Hits: 732
|
Up to category 'UK'