A TEENAGE girl has sparked controversy among Britain’s naturists by suggesting that some of those who adopt the naked lifestyle have hidden sexual motives.

Naturists have always promoted their lifestyle as being about freedom and a return to innocence.

However, Bianca Badham, 18, herself a naturist, has made a film claiming that a small but significant minority of Britain’s 25,000-plus nudists adopt their lifestyle for sexual purposes and that a few are paedophiles.

Diary of a Teenage Nudist, a Channel 4 documentary, is likely to anger the naturist community, even though Badham emphasises that most nudists have no sinister motive.

Her point is that Britain’s network of nudist clubs may not have the skills or vigilance needed to protect themselves against possible offenders. “In the right place with the right people, being nude is fun but naturism is not always pure and innocent and it’s not always pleasant for children,” she said.

The laws and attitudes against public nudity became an issue last year when Steve Gough, the so-called Naked Rambler, started his walk from Land’s End to John o’Groats.

He became a celebrity, joining other noted naturists such as Terry Jones, maker of the film Life of Brian, Billy Connolly, the comedian, and Bernard Jenkin, a Tory MP.

Badham has lived at Five Acres, Hertfordshire, Britain’s oldest nudist club, since the age of nine when her mother took it over. She said: “When I was a kid I simply accepted not wearing clothes. As I got older I became more self-conscious and doubts set in. I wanted to trace other young naturists to see how they felt.”

Badham never had any problems at Five Acres but, as she met other teenage naturists, she found herself faced with questions over the sexual motives of some older naturists.

Her film, screened on December 29, will feature Charlotte Ruddock, 12, from Suffolk, whose naturist parents take her to events such as naked swimming evenings at the local pool.

Steve Ruddock, her father, listens as she describes being followed around the pool by a man who is clearly a sex pest. He said: “Any single man can take his clothes off and profess to be naturist. We cope with it the best we can.”

Badham also raises the question of films advertised in naturist magazines that often feature children. After watching films of naked youngsters on trampolines and in pools she said: “I was disturbed by the shots of the children on the trampoline. It was obvious they would not have done it naturally.”

In another scene she confronts an “extreme nudist”, one of a growing band of men and women who promote male circumcision and the shaving of all body hair. The man, a 27-year-old car mechanic, describes regularly breaking the cardinal rule of British naturism and allowing himself to become visibly excited.

He suggests that the naturist lifestyle is “90% sexual even if people don’t openly admit it”, adding: “It’s about being a bit of a voyeur as well and about being seen by others.”

Such views are rejected by British Naturism, a nudists’ organisation, which has 25,000 members and which estimates that about 500,000 Britons go without clothes in their homes, gardens and on holidays.

They say naturism is “a way of life in harmony with nature with the intention of encouraging self-respect, respect for others and for the environment”.

Philip Clark, 66, a retired engineer who chairs the Northampton Sun Group, has been a naturist for 25 years and says “nakedness is not sexy” when everyone is nude.

However, naturism has already had to make changes in recognition of modern concerns. H&E Naturist (Health & Efficiency), one of its journals, used to feature picture spreads of families with youngsters but these have largely gone, partly replaced by naked celebrities. This month H&E voted actress Helen Mirren the magazine’s naturist of the year.

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