“We’re not perverts”: World Naked Bike Ride cyclist punched off bike by motorcyclist calls assault “occupational hazard” and hopes to change public perception

A World Naked Bike Ride cyclist who was punched to the ground during a nude cycling event this summer has vowed to not let his attacker win and wants to “change people’s mindsets”, insisting “we are not perverts”.

Motorcyclist Lee Turnage, 46, last month received a 14-month suspended sentence for the assault on naked bike ride participant Robert Brown who he considered to be “a pervert”. Turnage spotted the annual naked bike ride participants in Colchester on Saturday 9 August and punched Mr Brown off his bicycle. He also later attacked two police officers, leaving one requiring treatment to glue their ear back together, and admitted carrying a bladed article in a public place.

The court heard Turnage believed the cyclists to be “sexual predators” and “perverts”, something participant Mr Brown rejected in an interview with the MailOnline.

“If I don’t go on another ride, then he’s won. It won’t stop me,” the naked cyclist said, expressing hope that public perception would improve.

“To change people’s opinion and improve the perception of naturism, we need to have more events like this. Unfortunately, these attacks are an occupational hazard but they shouldn’t be. We are not perverts.”

Recalling the attack, Mr Brown said Turnage “made a filthy gesture with his fist and called us ‘wankers’.”

“I moved in front of my deaf friend so they could read my lips to tell them to move over to the lay-by because I knew he was going to come back,” Mr Brown explained. “I heard him turn around and rev. Before I knew what had happened, I felt this almighty whack to the head.

“I knew I hadn’t broken anything because I could move my legs. But I had gravel in places I didn’t think you could get gravel into’.

> Child safety campaigner demands Naked Bike Ride ban and claims it “allows perverts to be seen”, but World Naked Bike Ride London insists nude events “a lawful public protest for positive change”

“Nudity anywhere in the UK, whether it is socially or private, is perfectly legal. Most of the general public who turn up to see our bike rides push their kids to the front and we see them waving and cheering. We quite often find that having a naked female in our group tends to pacify people — it’s when we just have men that we get the comments of ‘paedo’ or ‘pervert’.

“We live in a society where consenting adults have rights. We want to try and get people to think in a different way to what they are. A lot of people have pointed out online about the ‘harm’ to children seeing us ride. No child has ever been harmed by the sight of a naked body and never will. We just hope to change people’s mindset.”

The media attention around the case has seen wider discussion about World Naked Bike Ride events, one child safety campaigner promoting a petition claiming nude rides “allow perverts to be seen” and calling for a ban on such events.

The petition asks government to “act on safeguarding children” over “event in public where people expose themselves”. Reform MP Lee Anderson has backed the campaign and said “our streets have become a freak show”. It has only attracted 462 signatures to date and the bizarre AI-generated image illustrating it has since been deleted.

Speaking to road.cc, the World Naked Bike Ride London insisted its events maintain public support and said the ride “is primarily a lawful public protest for positive change” and “we do not behave badly”.