LONDON:A British nudist who created legal history by becoming the first defendant to appear in court without a stitch of clothing was cleared yesterday of causing a nuisance by being naked in public.
A jubilant Vincent Bethell, who had spent five months in jail awaiting trial, left the courtroom and strode off down the street in wintry central London wearing nothing but his birth-day suit.
"This is a great decision," he said as he shivered in the street. "It is great progress. It as been proved that being human is not a crime."
The ruling at Southwark Crown Court marks the high point in a long career of naked protests by 28-year-old Bethell, who believes it is an inviolable human right to appear naked in public.
To prove his point the artist from Coventry has marched in the all-together to Buckingham Palace and climbed a tree opposite parliament wearing nothing but a cheeky grin.