By searching some key words on Lexis-Nexis' news archives, I came up with some interesting results:
Sunday Mirror
September 3, 2000, Sunday
THE TICKLE TEST;
HOW POLICE CHECK IF DRINK-DRIVERS FAKE UNCONSCIOUSNESS
BYLINE: Nick Pisa
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 35
LENGTH: 334 words
DRINK-drivers who try to exploit a loophole in the law by feigning unconsciousness are being caught out...by a tickle test.
Police officers tickle the feet of suspects to make sure they really are out cold - a surefire way of determining whether or not they're pretending.
Current law says the police can only take blood samples from suspects if they consent. It's an offence to refuse, but anyone who is unconscious can neither agree nor refuse, so they can often escape justice.
Many offenders have caught on to the loophole in the law and feign unconsciousness, either at the scene of an accident or even back at the police station. Last night PC Richard Bratton, of Bedfordshire police, said: "We try all sorts of tricks to make sure they are unconscious - even tickling their feet. I have known this happen on several occasions when a person pretends to be unconscious because they think they can get away with it."
Now MPs and the Police Federation are urging the Government to change the law.
Labour MP Margaret Moran said: "The principle that an offender can evade conviction for a very serious offence is not something that makes sense."
Police Federation chairman Fred Broughton said: "People who are believed to be feigning unconsciousness should be properly examined by medical people.
"If the medical expert thinks the offender is faking, they can then be prosecuted for refusing to provide a sample."
He added: "Tickling feet is one method but these people must be properly checked."
PC Bratton said: "What the police force is endeavouring to do is to get a change in the legislation whereby we can take a specimen from an unconscious driver.
"Blood-alcohol levels are tested for in a post- mortem and there's no consent required there.
"If the person who's killed is an innocent victim we will know what their blood alcohol level is.
"But we won't necessarily know what the blood-alcohol level of the guilty person is - and that's madness."
Man Allegedly Tickled Feet, Stole Shoes
BYLINE: By PAT MILTON, Associated Press Writer
SECTION: Domestic News
LENGTH: 382 words
DATELINE: MINEOLA, N.Y.
A minister's son who allegedly climbed into second-story windows in the middle of the night to tickle young women's feet and steal their shoes was charged Monday with burglary.
Richard Hunter, 20, suspected of five similar break-ins, "just likes women's feet," said Detective Lt. Louis Fucito. "Some people like other parts of the female body, and he just likes the feet."
"If he saw some girl who he thought had nice feet, he would go to her house," said Detective Jerry Wright.
Hunter, of Roslyn Heights, was arrested Sunday, arraigned Monday and released in his parents' custody on the condition he get psychiatric help.
County Judge Ira Wexner ordered that a psychiatric report be ready by the time Hunter is due in court July 9.
The Rev. Richard Hunter, and his wife, Pinnie, said through attorney Robert Rivers that psychiatric help for their son has been arranged.
At 4 a.m. on May 24, Hunter allegedly broke into a home in Roslyn Heights, went into the bedroom of Oyra Ostad, 15, who was asleep, and tickled her feet, said police spokesman Ed Weisinger. When she screamed, he fled, taking one shoe, Weisinger said.
On June 18, Hunter allegedly broke into the same house at 4:30 a.m. but this time tickled the feet of Miss Ostad's sister, Farbia Ostad, 21. She awoke screaming and he again fled, this time taking three shoes, Weisinger said.
"He ends up with two pair," said Detective Lt. Louis Fucito.
Hunter, who is unemployed, lives with his parents. His father is pastor of the Friendship Baptist Church in Roslyn.
Young Hunter is a suspect in five similar break-ins, some of which also involved the theft of shoes, in the area since last year, Fucito said.
In each case, an intruder climbed to the roof and entered a house through a second-story window, felt the feet of a young woman and made off with one or more women's shoes.
Hunter was arrested Sunday after an investigation by Wright, who noticed that Hunter matched descriptions provided by victims and lived nearby.
When arrested, Hunter handed over an assortment of women's shoes, Wright said.
"I'm 28 years on the force, and I've never heard of a case like this," said Fucito.
"There was never any damage done, but we are just happy we stopped this before he or someone got hurt," Wright said.
Pretty interesting.Daily Record
February 16, 2001, Friday
JUST JOAN: THE AGONY AUNT WITH THE ANSWERS;
HER DAUGHTER HAS AN URGE TO TICKLE
BYLINE: Joan Burnie
SECTION: PROBLEM PAGE; Pg. 58
LENGTH: 1078 words
Q I AM the single mother of a 16-year-old girl. She recently confided in me that she has developed a fetish for male and female feet and especially the tickling of them.
She has promised I am the only person who knows about this and that she has very rarely actually done it.
She has always been a good girl, very rarely in trouble and always talks to me whenever she has any difficulties.
Please help as I am unsure what I should do. I feel I could tell or ask her to lose such a fetish as it is disgusting, but by doing that I may be breaking her confidence and preventing her from telling me any of her problems again.
I could also maybe allow her to carry on as normal with her life, but ask that she keep me in check with what she is up to, although what would that include? Could I maybe even allow her to tickle me or me tickle her, so I know exactly what is going on and keep it on a somewhat straighter track and avoid any more severe S&M traits?
A FIRST of all, many congratulations on having built up such a good relationship with your daughter. You must be a fantastic mum for her to feel able to tell you everything, especially when it is something this intimate.
And your priority must be to make sure this continues. That means you must not give her the impression that you are repelled by her or think she is disgusting, far less dirty.
So let's look at this fetish of hers. I don't suppose it helps you, but it's a fairly common, as well as relatively harmless, if complicated one. Nor is there any evidence that it leads on to more dangerous or disturbing ones. S&M is all about gaining sexual satisfaction through pain - and tickling does not, on the whole, hurt either the tickler or the tickled.
The theory about foot fetishism is that it is something which begins in early childhood on account of babies spending a lot of time on the floor around their mother's feet, which they come to equate with extreme pleasure.
Obviously it's not a fixation, although I can think of worse, much worse - which anyone would want for their child, but at the same time, it's not as if your daughter is accosting strangers in the street, removing their shoes and tickling their toes.
Nor does she really want to. I'm sure she is just as puzzled and unhappy about this odd urge as you are. If it's hard for you, it's hard for her as well. Being a teenager is difficult enough without feeling you're abnormal or some kind of weird freak.
And what you both have to recognise is that one of the main problems with such things is that they are compulsions and no matter how much you - and she - would prefer not to have them, they are very difficult to control.
That doesn't mean you do nothing or allow her to tickle your feet in a futile effort to stop her doing it to someone else, but rather that you should, MUST, encourage her to talk to someone who specialises in this area.
Fortunately. as you and she have a brilliant relationship, you are better placed than many parents to gently persuade your daughter that it is in her best interests to try and get this sorted out before she is much older.
She showed a lot of courage when she told you about it - now she's got to go on to the next stage.
But emphasise that you want her to do it for her future benefit and well-being and not because you are annoyed or ashamed with her.
Nor is there any need whatsoever for her or you to feel embarrassed about telling someone else and seeking help.
And there are definitely people who will be only too glad to help and whose job it is to do so.
Her own GP is the place to begin. He/she will know to whom your daughter needs to be referred so that she can begin to cope with something which is not her fault.