IT IS well documented that when England lose in tournaments there is an increase in domestic violence.

On Sunday night following the Euro 2020 final between England and Italy we were running a live video stream from Brighton's West Street for our Facebook page.

Fans had gathered en masse and some were fighting in the street.

Then, shockingly, one of our reporters witnessed a woman being assaulted by a man. She was slapped and verbally abused.

This horrified our reporter but they continued to do their job in filming the incident. It is our duty to bear witness and it was unclear whether the situation was going to escalate. There were other people close by.

Quite understandably our footage prompted a strong response from our readers who discussed whether the reporter should have stepped in and/or stopped filming.

Our journalists are told that they should never put themselves in danger. If somebody is being hostile they must not put themselves at risk of harm.

The video continued as it was a fast-moving and unpredictable situation. Our reporter was collecting vital evidence of a crime.

Our reporter alerted a police officer and told her what had happened and pointed out who was involved.

We removed the footage from our Facebook page for the assaulted woman's welfare and then reported the incident again via 101.

We have of course provided the footage for the police and we are happy to assist them with any investigation.

We have documented the incident and reported on it. There were many more violent incidents in that area on Sunday evening and it is not the reporter's job to get involved in any of them.

Our reporters put themselves into all sorts of situations to expose crime and wrongdoing and shine a light on all the dark corners of society.

This is their job.

We have provided reports, video and photographs from the scene so that hopefully distressing scenes such as this are not repeated.

The violence against this woman has no place in a civilized society. We will be speaking to the police to find out what further action is being taken.