The CBC News reporter who was kissed on the cheek by a shirtless stranger at last weekend’s Squamish Valley Music Festival has accepted his apology.
Megan Batchelor said the 17-year-old contacted her on Twitter Monday and sounded sincerely regretful for what he did.
Batchelor has made a complaint to the RCMP after she was kissed by a festival attendee during a live report.
Reaction to the highly-publicized kiss has been split on social media, with many lashing out at the reporter for filing an RCMP report about the incident.
Paul Doroshenko, a criminal defence lawyer in Vancouver, said Batchelor’s response was entirely appropriate, and arguably a necessary step to curbing this kind of behaviour.
“It’s non-consensual touching – that constitutes an assault,” Doroshenko told CTV News. “We have to deter people from doing it. If we just let people get away with this we’re not deterring anybody.”
Doroshenko said a criminal conviction would have been unlikely in a case like this, particularly if the teenager doesn’t have a record, but he’s glad the boy apologized and hopes others will think twice before trying a similar stunt.
Teen apologizes for kissing reporter
For video and the full news story see: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/teen-apologizes-for-kissing-reporter-at-music-festival-1.2510923