NAKED rambler Melanie Roberts has managed to cling to her clean police record despite being arrested as she walked nude through Shropshire.

The Bournemouth hairdresser stressed she did not want to get into trouble with the cops when she set off on her controversial walk from Lands End to John O'Groats.

Since her arrest on July 17 it has looked as if Melanie was heading for a conviction for breach of the peace but now the Crown Prosecution Service has announced it will not proceed with charges against her or fellow walkers Steve Gough and Jeffrey Woodhouse.

The trio had been due to appear in court on August 15.

During an initial hearing, a woman magistrate refused to allow Steve to appear in court with no clothes on and the case against him had to be heard in the cells.

Melanie, 33, of Durley Gardens, has taken the summer off from her job in the Chop salon in Penn Hill to take part in the ramble.

She met Steve, a former Royal Marine who lives in Southampton, just a month before they set off in June.

Steve, 46, completed the first naked ramble in 2003 and 2004 when he was arrested 14 times and served two jail terms.

He claims he stages the walks in a bid to "continue to challenge attitudes towards public nudity."

Before setting off, he told the Daily Echo: "This country is a democracy and we need people to test that all the time and push back the boundaries."

First published: August 16, 2005