Duo fined $5000 each for naked SCG dash
TWO streakers said they were being funny not obscene when they bolted across the Sydney Cricket Ground in their birthday suits to the cheers of 40,000 Big Bash fans
NSW
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TWO streakers said they were being funny not obscene when they bolted across the Sydney Cricket Ground in their birthday suits to the cheers of 40,000 Big Bash fans.
But Magistrate Paul Lyon did not see the funny side convicting cousins Chad Sharp, 27, and Josh Hudson, 23, and fining them $5000 each for entering enclosed grounds and wilful and indecent exposure.
Their lawyer Peter Strain challenged the law related to streaking arguing that these days the average person wouldn’t find nudie runs at sporting events obscene because it was, “not out of the ordinary.”
“There are some circumstances where are streaker would be obscene – running through Sunday mass would perhaps be one… but streaking does happen at cricket matches,” he said.
Sharp and Hudson, were at the Big Bash match between the Sydney Sixers and the Sydney Thunder on January 14 when, wearing just socks and shoes, they sprinted across the ground chased by up to 20 security guards.
Before their run in the raw the pair posted on Facebook that they planned to streak and asked if friends would chip in for the fine raising $800.
Hudson, from Pitt Town made it across the entire length of the field while Sharp, from the Central Coast, was overwhelmed when he made a daring dash to the crease to remove a stump.
The pair, who are both carpenters, pleaded guilty to entering an enclosed land but not guilty to wilful and indecent exposure. Sharp also pleaded not guilty to damaging property, a charge that was later dismissed.
Mr Strain argued that the prosecution had to prove beyond reasonable doubt that streaking at the cricket was, “of such horror or of such a disgusting nature that people ought not to be exposed to the streakers.”
He argued that the test to determine if streaking at the cricket was obscene was to consider the “ordinary modestly of the average man (person).”
“People enjoyed it, children and adults were laughing and cheering that was the ambience of the game. There was no evidence that anybody did not enjoy it,” he said.
Mr Strain also pointed out that under NSW law indecent exposure was categorised as an offence of a sexual nature which meant it will remains permanently on men’s criminal records and it would prompt extra scrutiny if they needed to undertake a Working with Children Check.
Mr Lyon was unmoved saying cricket was a family event and even if the children were laughing parents should not be put in a position where they had to avoid going to the cricket, “because some males might want to expose their genitals and have fun.”
He convicted and fined the pair.
Sharp and Hudson have lodged an appeal to Mr Lyon’s verdict and the case will now go to the District Court.