STRASBOURG, France - A British man who has spent a total of seven years in jail for going naked in public lost his legal battle to wear no clothes on Tuesday as Europe's human rights court told him he must respect the feelings of others. Stephen Gough, dubbed "The Naked Rambler" by British media for his bid to trek the length of the country wearing no more than a hat and bulky rucksack, has faced some 30 convictions for public order disturbances and other offences.

Gough argued that European laws on respect for private life and freedom of expression gave him the right to nudity whenever he chose it. But the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights ruled that they did not apply given his "deliberately repetitive antisocial conduct". "He had plenty of other ways of expressing his opinions," it concluded.

So-called "Naked Rambler" Stephen Gough makes his way south through Peebles, Scotland, after being released from Saughton Prison in Edinburgh on October 6, 2012. Jeff J. Mitchell / Getty Images file

- Reuters