A MAN claims police strip-searched and humiliated him after he tried to use his mobile phone to film officers intervening in a scuffle.

Steve Hathaway, 39, said his arm was pulled behind his back and his mobile confiscated during the incident on Sunday evening.

He said police returned the phone to him days later minus the footage of the incident.

Mr Hathaway claims that when he told a policewoman she was not following police guidelines during the incident, she swore at him and called him "fat".

A Dorset Police spokesman said the force has received a complaint, and investigates any complaints within Independent Police Complaints Commission guidelines.

The incident started after Mr Hathaway and his partner Victoria Bostock, 31, from Fordingbridge, had been watching England's World Cup match against Ecuador and then gone for drinks at Bliss, on St Peter's Road. The couple said they had been drinking, but denied being drunk.

A friend became embroiled in a scuffle with doormen outside, and Miss Bostock said she started shouting at them to leave him alone.

Mr Hathaway said he was not involved in the incident, but came out of the bar and started filming it on his mobile phone after police got involved.

"I think they went in really mob-handed, and I don't think they liked me filming what was going on," he said.

"The next thing, my right arm was wrenched from me.

"It was put up behind my back. I was thrown over the back of the police car."

He said he was then handcuffed and his mobile was taken from him before he was locked into the police car, where he was sworn at three times by a policewoman.

When he arrived at Bournemouth police station, he said he was strip-searched.

"They laughed at me when they stripped me off," he said, alleging that he was denied a phone call that evening.

"It was like being in a third world country."

The following morning, Mr Hathaway said he was interviewed and the police apologised to him and released him.

Miss Bostock, who became upset with the police when they arrested Steve, was also arrested.

She has difficulty remembering what happened, which she puts down to concussion, but said she does have flashbacks of officers grabbing her roughly, and suffered bruises to her arms and face and a puncture wound to her wrist which required several stitches.

The police escorted her to hospital late that night, where she was monitored for concussion before being returned to her cell.

She was allowed to go late on the Monday afternoon. Police confirmed they had both been released without charge.

Police were called to Bournemouth town centre before the incident on Sunday June 25, after trouble flared among a crowd of football fans.

A police spokesman said: "Speaking generally, the operation in Bournemouth town centre early on Sunday evening was designed to ensure public safety and maintain public confidence."