ASBO! Case Dismissed! 8th
August 2007
"Serial streaker escapes Asbo"
Mark has avoided an Anti-social behaviour order (Asbo) which would have banned him from exposing himself at public events.
Merseyside Police applied for the Asbo against the 42-year-old after he struck at the Open Golf Championship in Hoylake, Wirral, last year.
But his behaviour was not judged distressing enough to warrant an Asbo.
Toy squirrel
District Judge Nick Sanders was told that as Tiger Woods was due to tee off at the Open Golf Championship last year 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."
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."
Dismissing the application at Wirral magistrates' court, Judge Sanders 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.
"Never once have I been booed. The day I get booed by the public is the day I stop."
Mark thanks all his messages of support during
these recent dark times.
For more information, please click on the links at the bottom of this page.
Update - 13th April 2007
In a paradoxical twist of fate, Friday the 13th was a day of nice things happening for our Mark. It was the day the Home Office was refused by a judge to place an interim ASBO on Mark, immediately before the Aintree Grand National day.
Despite the Home Office's failure at a court hearing on 13th April 2007 to get him banned from
the world’s greatest steeplechase
and other sporting events, Wirral magistrates shelved until May 11 a decision on whether to grant
an interim ASBO against our Mark Roberts, who, naked but for a cowboy hat and false moustache,
provided a sideshow at the Grand Nationals of 1996 and 1999, not to mention more than
380 sporting events over the last decade.
During the day’s hearing, Lawrence Lee, for Mr Roberts, told the court that most people who saw the
streaker loved what he did. In most cases he provided pleasure and hilarity "...for most, the atmosphere
is joyous,” Mr Lee told the court.
District Judge Nick Sanders, adjourning the hearing, refused to allow the ban because it was uncertain
whether streaking fell into the Home Office definition of antisocial behaviour. The judge said that
if he were to impose the ASBO, Mr Roberts would be prevented from attending any sporting event.
Speaking today, Mark Roberts said he had heard that the Aintree authorities were scared that he
would stage a performance today.
“I’ve told the Aintree officials and the police over and over again that I won’t be there this year.
And I certainly won’t be jumping over Becher’s Brook; you should only do that if you’re a
gelding.”
- Mark has three children. :)
“My kids, like most people, think it’s a great laugh. They realise I do it for fun and for charity.
If people didn’t encourage me, I wouldn’t carry on. Even the police unofficially encourage me to
continue - I give more autographs to the police than anyone else :) - nobody riots and nobody gets
hurt.”
Eventually, prosecutors dropped the charges for lack of evidence.
That, frankly, is not the sort of judgemental hearing that the world streaking champion likes to hear (from a certain perspective anyway) !!!
However, the fight to remain ASBO free continues .... This was for an interim
ASBO, Marks case will go to crown court in August for a lifetime ASBO.
Update - 1st April 2007
And no, this is NO April Fool joke!!!
In recent events, Mark Roberts has received information from the Home Office regarding efforts to restrict
him from giving the world humour by trying to issue him with a lifetime ASBO.
As we all know, an ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order) is (by Home Office definition)...
"... behaviour which causes or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more people who are not in the same household as the perpetrator."
"Among the forms it can take are:"
"graffiti – which can on its own make even the tidiest urban spaces look squalid"
"abusive and intimidating language, too often directed at minorities"
"excessive noise, particularly late at night"
"fouling the street with litter"
"drunken behaviour in the streets, and the mess it creates"
"dealing drugs, with all the problems to which it gives rise."
As we all know, Marks activities as you can see from every photograph on this website packed to the gunnels with crowds of laughing faces and people taking photographs! So to
enable the Home
Office to truly place an ASBO on Mark, surely they need to add "making millions of people laugh" to their list above, in which case surely TV comedians and perhaps even TV Programmes such as
"You've Been Framed" should be removed from air so the government can really subdue the people of this country and perhaps the world so we can start to live our lives in a more dull and
humourless way.
Yes of course, ASBOs work, but they should only be used for negative situations
as of those listed above. However to restrict someone from bringing laughter to millions ... ? This is the government we are talking about here. Someone you would have hoped would show common sense! But alas, common sense is lacking in every day life these days and unfortunately, at the Home Office, as we have seen in the past few months, their
bunglings are on a scale of magnitude that can now in no way be measured!
Hopefully justice will prevail and Mark will continue to be free to give joy and laughter to millions!
Related News Links ...
Before the victory ...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1652672.ece
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=573012007
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1004/1004451_streaker_ban_refused.html
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=45172&in_page_id=34&ito=newsnow
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6552489.stm
After the victory ...
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007360414,00.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=473839&in_page_id=1770&ito=newsnow
http://www.24dash.com/news/7/25723/index.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2143558,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6935605.stm
http://www.pendletoday.co.uk/latest-north-west-news?articleid=3092449
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2007/08/08/no-i-won-t-give-this-serial-streaker-an-asbo-many-people-find-it-amusing-100252-19587968/
I guess we won't be needing this now :)
A victory for :
Common sense, British humour, British justice,
FREEDOM!
Merseyside Police applied for the Asbo against the 42-year-old after he struck at the Open Golf Championship in Hoylake, Wirral, last year.