Police fail in law change bid to ban serial streaker

Aug 8 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

WIRRAL’S most senior police officer has called for a change in the law after an application to give a serial streaker an ASBO failed.

Mark Roberts, 42, from Liverpool, has stripped off at the Ryder Cup, the Uefa and European Cup finals, the Super Bowl in Texas, US, and the Winter Olympics in Italy.

Merseyside Police brought the application for an ASBO after Mr Roberts succeeded in breaching security at the final hole of the Open Golf Championship in Hoylake, Wirral, last year.

Last night, the Area Commander for Wirral, Chief Supt Colin Matthews, said: “The judgment highlights that there is a gap in the law which needs to be considered by the Government.

“It cannot be right that an individual can disrupt an event, sometimes causing risk to his own life and others, and not attract a ban from similar events for a specified period of time.”

Chief Supt Matthews compared the ASBO application to football banning orders which allow the authorities to prevent those who step onto the playing area to be banned from all football matches for periods up to five years.

He said: “In a world where event safety managers and the police are often busy with genuine concerns for public safety through the risks posed by terrorism and disorder, conduct such as that frequently practised by Mark Roberts is a distraction.

“While having to deal with his actions, security staff may miss something altogether more sinis-ter. It is for that reason I am call-ing for a change in the law to impose banning orders to prevent individuals repeating this type of behaviour time after time.”

At Wirral Magistrates Court yesterday, District Judge Nick Sanders was told that, as Tiger Woods was due to take a shot, Mr Roberts ran around the green with just a toy squirrel covering his genitals and a golf ball between his buttocks.

Jim Clarke, for the police, said: “It is not the aim of the police to land Mr Roberts in jail, it is to prevent public and sporting events from being disrupted.

“Mr Roberts seeks to portray himself as a performer. But people do not pay to see this man streak.”

Mr Roberts, whose convictions date back to an incident of indecent exposure in the 1980s, embarked on his streaking career 14 years ago.

Often he uses disguises to pass through security checks and in one incident at Royal Ascot in 2003, he reached the racetrack while dressed as a woman.

Laurence Lee, defending, said apart from last September’s Ryder Cup in Ireland, Mr Roberts had not offended for 12 months.

He said: “My client has turned over a new fig leaf. He accepts that some people might be offended. But this is good, old-fashioned British fun.”

Had it been successful, Mr Roberts would have been banned from displaying his buttocks and genitals in public, from attending public sporting or speaking events, and from behaving in a manner which would have disrupted or delayed public sporting or speaking events.

But Judge Sanders ruled his behaviour did not cause enough people sufficient distress to warrant the ASBO. Dismissing the application, he said: “What Mr Roberts does may be annoying but, in my opinion, it does not amount to anti-social behaviour.”

Afterwards Mr Roberts, who is unmarried and unemployed, described the decision as a victory for the British sense of humour.

He said: “Humour and justice has prevailed over political correctness. My motivation has only ever been to entertain people.”

liammurphy