Trigger Happy.
With all the excitement of finding myself surrounded by cross-dressers on Election Day, as the serious business of counting the votes in Cambridge collided with the theatre showing the eternally popular Rocky Horror show disgorging its audience, I didn’t have time to read the papers. At least, not the serious stuff.
Like the tale of Peter Trigger.
Now Old Holborn, even devoid of his mask and cloak, still strides round looking for all the world like a supporter of Oswald Mosley, in black shirt and jeans and a rather magnificent pair of Italian hand made jack-boots. He doesn’t go unnoticed in the crowd. Fortunately he walks fast, so I was hobbling along a reverential few feet behind him most of the day. I didn’t see anybody ‘alarmed or distressed’ by this reincarnation of the Fascist’s love God.
I also saw several ladies covered from head to foot in black-out curtain, even their faces. They didn’t seem to cause any ‘alarm or distress’. Not even to small children.
There was an errant stray Scotsman, striding along in his Kilt. He looked to be the genuine article – he was sweating in the meagre 16° temperature, so I could be fairly sure he came from north of Hadrian’s Wall. Personally I was freezing, but that is another story. Assuming he was genuine, I am reliably informed that he had-nothing-on under his skirt. That didn’t seem to have ‘alarmed or distressed’ any passers-by – nor any children.
So, we have established that the solid burghers of central Cambridge don’t come over all faint when faced with a man in a skirt with nothing underneath, or even one in a basque and fishnet tights, let alone an imitation Oswald Mosley, or bottle of Guinness.
They are not so hardy in Northampton, a mere 43 miles north west of Cambridge.
Which is where Peter Trigger lives, clutching a collection of Asbos.
Back in December 2008, Peter Trigger collected his first Asbo which bans him from wearing a skirt or displaying his bare legs (shorts?) between the hours of 8.30 to 10am and 2.45 to 4pm – outside of those hours apparently he doesn’t cause ‘alarm or distress’. He is also banned from causing ‘alarm or distress’ to anyone not a member of his household – presumably he can alarm or distress them as much as he likes. It cost him £250 to agree to these conditions.
A spokesman for Northampton Borough Council said:
“Parents and their children have been affected by the behaviour of Mr Trigger. Various agencies, including the police, have tried stepping in to explain how his behaviour is affecting others, but he has taken none of this on board and is adamant that he can dress however he likes.”
Perhaps Peter doesn’t read the papers, he seems to be under the impression that he lives in a free country.
Fast forward to Election Day two years later, and there is Mr Trigger, back in his Brittany Spears outfit, at 7.25 in the morning – a time when he is allowed to look like an extra from Hogwarts if you remember, curfew hours for dressing to please the children doesn’t start for another 45 minutes.
Northampton Magistrates’ Court heard that he breached the terms of his Asbo by allegedly upsetting his neighbours – no children were present – deliberately ‘bending over’ in front of them early in the morning on December 16 last year.
Bending over? What was he doing?
“He stood by the van with his back to it. He bent down and was appearing to be doing something with his laces. On this occasion he repeatedly bent down. This repeated action continued until Mr and Mrs Copping drove off.”
What? Just tying his shoelaces is a crime now? Perhaps he had nothing on under the skirt, was that the problem?
“It is the Crown’s case that, very early in the morning, the defendant left his home wearing a skirt. Underneath that skirt was trousers or black leggings.
Nope, better dressed than your average Jock.
Miss Tomaszewska said that, although Trigger was permitted to wear a skirt at that time of day, he had breached the second part of his Asbo by causing Mr and Mrs Copping ‘harassment, alarm and distress’. Mrs Copping told the court she thought Trigger had bare legs that day, and was wearing a pleated skirt to his mid-thigh, with socks and shoes.
Mr Trigger now has another Asbo, lasting for five years, preventing him from tying his shoelaces even whilst dressed in a manner conforming to the dress code of Northamptonshire council at 7.25 in the morning……
Anybody brave enough to try and get an Asbo out of their local council claiming that children are frightened of a woman dressed in black head to foot with her face masked and it is alarming and distressing them?
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1
May 20, 2010 at 10:22 -
When will the public be told “They have no right to not be offended.”?
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2
May 20, 2010 at 10:26
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3
May 20, 2010 at 10:30 -
No problem with cross-dressing, if that’s what floats your boat, but he could at least make an effort – that photo could be Agnes Young, from some dodgy all-girl AC/DC tribute band. If Mr Trigger could get some decent fashion and make-up tips, then more power to his slingbacks.
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8
May 20, 2010 at 10:32 -
“…he has taken none of this on board and is adamant that he can dress however he likes.”
Now, why do I get the feeling that if Mr Trigger self-identified as a transvestite/transexual, there would be hordes of lefties chaining themselves to railings in defence of his right to dress however he wishes?
And why do I get the impression that had this been the case, it would be the neighbours threatened with ASBOs for daring to complain about him?
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9
May 20, 2010 at 10:39 -
Julia, I was thinking the same thing, but I’m fairly sure it wouldn’t be an ASBO, they’d probably be on the receiving end of the full weight judicial system for committing a hate crime
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10
May 20, 2010 at 10:42 -
Good point! Just wondering – has anyone ever accused media darling Grayson Perry of frightening the children?
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11
May 20, 2010 at 11:24 -
Spot on!
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12
May 20, 2010 at 10:34 -
Perhaps Mr Trigger should try pulling the waistband of his skirt down to expose his underwear – he could then cite precedent to appeal against the asbo.
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13
May 20, 2010 at 10:35
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14
May 20, 2010 at 10:54 -
I have to agree with Vimes. I mean – what schoolgirl wears a cap? Seriously, much as I detest the HRA, surely he can take action against this. I would have thought by now he’s have had a couple of grasping Human Rights lawyers banging on his door.
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17
May 20, 2010 at 11:01 -
White, male, tying shoelaces in a provocative manner? Nah, bang to rights.
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18
May 20, 2010 at 12:51 -
“…….. he had breached the second part of his Asbo by causing Mr and Mrs Copping ‘harassment, alarm and distress’.”
If the sight of him does that, what effect will these …..
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/the-mascot-nightmares-begin-201005202749/
….have on the cheeeeldren?
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20
May 20, 2010 at 16:53 -
Sorry, disagree.
The man is obviously mental and I can just imagine the comments on this site if he was to ‘escalate’ his strange behaviour to the point where someone really is harmed.
People are perfectly entitled to talk to walls, for example. We do not think it strange when they get locked up before they hurt someone. This chap/ess falls into the same category.
If wearing a skirt in front of passing school kids isn’t enough of a red flag, I don’t know what is.
In the good old days, this would all have been sorted out with very hard punch to face. In fact, that would not have been necessary because people knew that the result of this kind of thing would be a fat-lip, and so wouldn’t do it in the first place. Alas, those days are gone.
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21
May 20, 2010 at 17:01 -
English Viking – are you saying that all kilt wearing Scots are mental? Perhaps I shouldn’t ask you that! Maybe it’s just that if everyone is running round in a skirt it becomes OK, and we only object to minority behaviour?
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22
May 20, 2010 at 21:16 -
I object to mental defectives wearing female clothing in public. Especially anywhere near my children. You could let him babysit for you, I wouldn’t.
As for porridge gobblers wearing skirts, I think a kilt might just (only just) squeeze in as a moot point, though most of them (wife beaters) do fall into the category of mentally defective.
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23
May 20, 2010 at 16:55 -
What has he done, exactly?
Sorry, I’m having a bit of trouble with this one. Is someone going to stop me wearing jeans? Will I be arrested for going around looking like a Bag Lady?
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24
May 20, 2010 at 21:42 -
English Viking, you’re bang on the money mate. We are far too accepting of perversion these days. What with sodomy for sixteen year olds, sex changes on the NHS! This is not the same England where I was born.
Eleanor; it’s not what he’s done, it’s the threat he represents. Believe me on this, his current slight aberration is indicative of something far more sinister.
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25
May 21, 2010 at 00:15 -
I’m assuming Andy that you’ve never played with yourself, always have sex with the lights out, have never had sex outside of marriage and are content with the missionary position – or is even that too perverted for your apparently narrow mind.
How about you stick to the letters pages of the Daily Fail and let the adults of this world do with ourselves as we please so long as no (non-consensual) harm is done to anyone.
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26
May 21, 2010 at 21:28 -
He he he. I think you may be confusing me with a sexually repressed person. What goes on in the privacy of ones’ boudoir is rather different from public behavior. This chap seems to be giving out signals of a dangerous infatuation with female school uniforms – fine if carried out in privacy, not so when on public display. Anyhoo, fair game – I deserve to be shot at because I stuck my head above the parapet.
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