School Will Install Frosted Window So Neighborhood Man, 74, Can Sunbathe Nude

A new Scottish school plans to install a frosted window to allow their 74-year-old nudist neighbor to sunbathe naked in his backyard.

Antoni Bogulak, 74, petitioned council bosses in Arbroath, the largest town in the council area of Angus, for permission to continue to “sunbathe in the buff” after a new school is built near his house.

Bogulak's home would fall in the direct line of sight of the school and he wanted to avoid offending the general public. The council bosses unanimously agreed to install a frosted window in the stairwell of Muirfield Primary School’s new £8.7 million ($10 million) building. The school will switch places with its playing fields as part of the second phase of the Arbroath Schools Project, following new schools that opened last year.

“I have been a naturist for 40 years and if this one window is in the line of sight of my garden then it will affect my ability to occasionally sunbathe in the buff. I have no need to cause offense so I would have no option but to stop being a naturist,” Bogulak said. “It’s something I enjoy. If I can lie in the sun for an hour with no clothes on, it’s better than lying in a tight swimming costume.”

Public nudity, or naturism, is not illegal in Scotland or any other part of the United Kingdom. Naturists can be charged with a public disorder offense if authorities decide they are being deliberately confrontational, if they are asked to cover up by officials or if they stripped to try and upset and shock others. Scottish law does not include a statutory offense, but a common law offense of offending public decency. The Crown Prosecution Service stated, “a balance needs to be struck between a naturist’s right to freedom of expression and the right of the wider public to be protected from harassment, alarm and distress.”

Bogulak’s wife is not a naturist, but she said her husband’s concerns were “just about privacy.”

“I wouldn’t want to worry anyone,” Antoni Bogulak said. “But I obviously don’t want kids to be able to see through it and say, ‘what’s that man doing?’ It’s not my intention to scare parents or anyone. I’m not particularly happy with where the school is going in general, but I also don’t want to have to stop being a naturist.”