Wrong to be nude in your back garden ?

growler

Saw this story on BBC today where a woman in Wales was (a) taken to court and (b) cleared of indecent exposure for sunbathing nude in her own backgarden.

A neighbour filmed her and then reported her to the police.

" Prosecutor Maggie Hughes said sunbathing nude "could be grossly offensive to normal decent persons in society"." WTF? ... the naturist stripping off at the pool in Tralee I can see as being grossly offensive , but in the privacy of your backgarden , no.

What a strange world we live in, I cannot fathom how (a) the Prosecution service feel they could waste tax payers money charging this woman (b) the voyeur neighbour wasn't arrested for being a pervert and (c) that people can be so bloody prudish.

Hagar

AKAIK a man would be found guilty of indecent exposure under the same circumstances.
There's some quirk in the law about male genitals being more visible than female genitals.

Karoma

"The district nurse said she found the prosecution "prudish"."

homah_7ft

In fairness the neighbour doesn't have to look into the next garden. They decided to be offended in my opinion.

Karoma

homah_7ft wrote:

In fairness the neighbour doesn't have to look into the next garden. They decided to be offended in my opinion.

Precisely. Not only that, but to film it...?
/walks off confused

homah_7ft

I suppose a good excuse if his wife found the tape would be to claim it was, "For evidence".

RuggieBear

he should be done for invasion of privacy.

he was so shocked and offended that he filmed her...!!!?

FX Meister

Can the neighbour not sue for the other neighbour fliming her being naked?

Karoma

homah_7ft wrote:

I suppose a good excuse if his wife found the tape would be to claim it was, "For evidence".

That's probably how all of this came about...

GuanYin

Well from the picture it looks like excessive sunbathing took its toll on her skin!!

I don't see the big deal. I lived beside an exotic dancer when I was younger and she regularly sunbathed topless in her garden.

Didn't bother me in the slightest!!!

homah_7ft

You could sue for carpal tunnel syndrome

growler

RuggieBear wrote:

he should be done for invasion of privacy.

he was so shocked and offended that he filmed her...!!!?

no doubt so he could be shocked and offended repeatedly in the privacy of his own living room

Cumulative shockings having more legal weight presumably.

bonkey

growler wrote:

but in the privacy of your backgarden

I think I'd need to see just how private her back garden was before I'd agree that this statement is applicable.

Simply being private property is not, I would imagine, enough....or do you think that there'd be no problem with whatever you did in the privacy of your driveway, or perhaps on the privacy of your rooftop?

jc

homah_7ft

bonkey wrote:

I think I'd need to see just how private her back garden was before I'd agree that this statement is applicable.

You just want to see the film

Dave!

If I recorded some chick getting changed, and got caught for it, would I get away with no penalty?

Just curious

Nah I'm appalled that he was able to record them sunbathing and didn't get in trouble for it.

homah_7ft

Deviant- a person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable especially in sexual behavior. Wouldn't you say the male neighbour was in fact the deviant since most males would be more than happy with the situation.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

I'd do it purposefully to annoy the neighbours...

DOLEMAN

I wonder would he be so upset if she was a hot Swedish student...

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

just read the story and noticed the bit about people with children being worried....

If your kids see someone naked, do we think it's particualrly disturbing for them? Are they going to turn into perverted little maniacs when they grow up? And how do you stop them seeing naked people at places like swimming pool changing rooms?

DOLEMAN

Ikky Poo2: exactly.

I bet these people have no problem letting their kids watch violent movies and eat junk food...

FFS why are people so disturbed when it comes to our most natural state?

snickerpuss

I did think it was a bit odd to bring her to court and don't think she should have been charged but i'm not sure i'd really want to see some naked oul wan out my window everytime i looked out.
Anyhow don't know why that woman thinks it'll warp her children though. Main thing i was wondering was how she managed to sunbathe nude so often in Wales, surely it'd be freezing.

walshb

55 years old. My god I'd say that was a sight. Whoever filmed that must have a strong bloody stomach!!!

Sleepy

I'm amazed there wasn't a counter-suit for invasion of privacy. Surely video-taping your neighbour while they're sunbathing (naked or not) is illegal?

normar

walshb wrote:

55 years old. My god I'd say that was a sight. Whoever filmed that must have a strong bloody stomach!!!

What an ignorant and abusive thing to say about anyone. You should be ashamed of yourself for that unwarranted attack on another person. Just who do you think you are? Withdraw it now.

Mick and Noreen

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Withdraw it now.

I'm curious, just who do you think you are ?

rsynnott

Actually, they might do worse here. I seem to remember there's a quirk in the new public indecency (or whatever it may be called) law in the UK where you're allowed do just about anything in nominally non-private places where there's a "reasonable expectation" of not being seen (public toilets are specifically excluded, incidentally).

Shellie13

DOLEMAN wrote:

I wonder would he be so upset if she was a hot Swedish student...

lol!
so true...
sure he still wuda filmed for a diff purpose no doubt!

CathyMoran

I would have thought that your own back garden is your own space and it is nobodys business if you are nude there, now it might be different if you were on a low balcony but otherwise...next they will be saying that you can not be naked in your own room or that you can only be naked in a room with no windows.

RuggieBear

Mordeth wrote:

I'm curious, just who do you think you are ?

They'd be naturists

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

but is that who they are?

normar

Mordeth wrote:

I'm curious, just who do you think you are ?

We are Mick and Noreen and we are naturists.

But the real point is that we are also people who find it offensive when any person is automatically degraded and scorned in this way simply because they are older.

Lets look at what was said:

Originally Posted by walshb
55 years old. My god I'd say that was a sight. Whoever filmed that must have a strong bloody stomach!!!

Walshb has no idea who this 55 year old person is, or what they look like. He does not have the right in our opinion to offend or debase her in this disgraceful manner. It is an attack on older people simply because they are older. It is ageist and sexist, and we repeat the request for him to withdraw this ugly comment.

Moderators should be doing their job. We thought abusive comments against elderly people (indeed any group of people) should be forbidden.
We believe in tolerance and acceptance of others, and we are against prejudice in all its ugly forms.

But what do you think Mordeth? Do you think it's right that older people at random should be considered sickening to see simply because they are in the nude?

M+N