{{The right to go jogging in the nude has been upheld by the High Court in New Zealand. <\/p>\n
Andrew Lyall Pointon (47) was wearing only a pair of shoes when he was spotted by a woman while running at 8.30am in a forest near Tauranga in August last year.}}<\/p>\n
She called police and he was arrested during another nude run.
\nPointon was charged with offensive behaviour and found guilty in Tauranga District Court last December.<\/p>\n
An appeal was thrown out in June, but a second appeal has just been upheld by Justice Paul Heath in the High Court at Tauranga.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it was (offensive) then God wouldn\u2019t have given us genitals,\u201d Mr Pointon told The Dominion Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a win for all libertarians and a setback for all conservatives in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge, Justice Heath, compared the situation to passing \u2018gang members\u2019 walking through the park.<\/p>\n
He said: \u2018It would not be surprising for a person in the position of the complainant to be concerned and discomforted by their presence, and even to feel threatened.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, on any view, their behaviour would not be regarded as offensive behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cShould the sight of a naked man, in the circumstances in which the complainant found herself, be treated any differently? I think not.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that he felt Pointon was \u2018a genuine naturist\u2019 who had taken measures to avoid disturbing others \u2014 such as choosing a time when children would be unlikely to be on the track.<\/p>\n
But Family First spokesman Bob McCoskrie said he was disappointed and said Justice Heath\u2019s decision shows \u2018double standards\u2019.<\/p>\n
He asked: \u2018Is it okay for someone to streak through his courtroom? He\u2019d be the first one to put them in the cells.\u2019<\/p>\n
Picturesque: The jogger was spotted close to Tauranga harbour in New Zealand
\nNaturist Mr Pointon said he enjoyed the freedom of not wearing clothes and began running naked about 18 months ago.<\/p>\n
The complainant, who was out walking her dog when she spotted Pointon, said she was so offended that she did not wish to ever return to the Oropi Bike Park.<\/p>\n
But Pointon lashed out at the woman who complained.
\nHe said: \u2018It\u2019s just ludicrous. Has this person got nothing better to do than wasting everyone\u2019s time?<\/p>\n
\u2018All she saw was a naked man running through the bush. It was just a fleeting moment, which has cost us all.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just shows that it was a stupid decision by police to go ahead . . . and charge me for something totally irrelevant.\u201d \u2014 {Daily Mail}.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{The right to go jogging in the nude has been upheld by the High Court in New Zealand. Andrew Lyall Pointon (47) was wearing only a pair of shoes when he was spotted by a woman while running at 8.30am in a forest near Tauranga in August last year.}} She called police and he was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-4447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4447"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=4447"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=4447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}