Touching someone's thigh when they're presenting their poster at an academic conference is completely out of line. They have to be there to present their work to people, not get sexually harassed, and that's even ignoring his other behaviour. You probably shouldn't be flirting with people at a poster session anyway.

I was disagreeing with the use of the term 'predatory', I didn't suggest that what he did wasn't wrong.

Folks: someone touched someone on the thigh at a conference (inappropriately), and it's making international news? This is ridiculous.

The original Bloomberg article didn't make it so clear, but the blog post that's now linked to above describes a lot more than "the touching of a thigh".