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LONDON - British police have launched a search for a man who pinched the bottom of a TV reporter while she was broadcasting a live news report.
Tens of thousands of YouTube viewers around the world have seen the clip of the moment when reporter Sue Turton was "goosed" by the mystery man while reporting from a flooded street in Oxford last week.
While the Channel 4 reporter has told police she does not want to press charges, detectives insist they want to catch the bottom pincher and slap him with a £80 ($216).
"We are taking this seriously," a Thames Valley police spokesman told the Guardian. "We just think it was particularly stupid and obnoxious behaviour and the individual concerned needs some kind of sanction."
Footage of the goosing incident shows Turton standing in a flooded street while a man comes up behind her and pinches her on the right side of her bottom before rushing away. The pinch caused Turton to flinch, but she carried on with her live cross for Channel 4 news.
"I personally found the matter quite humiliating and somewhat disrespectful to the plight of those I was reporting about," she said.
- AAP