The last thing Zara Owen, a first-year French and Spanish student at the University of Nottingham, remembers is arriving with her friends at PRYZYM nightclub and ordering herself a drink. The following day, she woke up in bed, unable to walk, with zero recollection of the night before. Instead, she noticed a sharp and scratchy pain on her leg, which she traced to a pinprick. Owen has since come forward to raise awareness of her stomach-churning story after believing she had been “spiked by injection”. Her tale has created a domino effect online, where a number of women are now coming forward to share similar accounts of being spiked in clubs and bars.
In a separate incident days earlier, a woman in a club, a stone’s throw away from PRYZYM, believes she was spiked in a similar way. The woman, also 19, said that she felt a “pinch on the back of her arm” as she left Stealth nightclub on October 12. She later blacked out before being taken to A&E. Her sister, Ellie Simpson, told the BBC that this new form of attack was “frightening” and difficult to prevent: “I don’t think it’s quite yet sunk in what’s happened to her [….] Obviously you can put your hand over your drink but how do you stop somebody stabbing you with a needle?”
Nottinghamshire Police has said it has been looking into multiple reports of people being “spiked physically.” Superintendent Kathryn Craner said: “We are currently investigating reports of individuals suspecting that their drinks have been spiked. Linked to this a small number of victims have said that they may have felt a scratching sensation as if someone may have spiked them physically. Consequently, we are actively investigating all these reports.”
Superintendent Craner also confirmed that a 20-year-old man has been arrested “on suspicion of possession of Class A and B drugs and cause to administer poison or noxious thing with intent to injure, aggrieve and annoy” following an incident in Lower Parliament Street on 16 October. The man has now been released on bail.
The symptoms of drink spiking are often similar to being drunk and include slurred speech, dizziness, drowsiness, sickness, headaches, confusion and passing out. Spiking by injection is of particular concern owing to the life-changing risk of contracting Hepatitis or HIV through the use of dirty needles.
In the past fortnight, numerous incidents of being spiked by injection have been issued in Dundee, Stirling, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Liverpool. Police Scotland are currently investigating incidents at venues like Nice N Sleazy in Glasgow and also at Tingle Bar in Stirling.
The group Edinburgh Anonymous said that it had “multiple reports” of students being “spiked by injection in Edinburgh clubs leaving a small red bump on their back”, with people displaying symptoms “similar to those when spiked by a pill such as suddenly feeling drunk, drowsy or nauseous.” Police Scotland have also confirmed that they have launched an investigation after a woman was reportedly spiked in Edinburgh’s Liquid Rooms on 9 October.
Many have taken to social media sites like Twitter and Instagram to share their terrifying accounts of being spiked. A post that gained thousands of shares alleged that an incident occurred at Captain’s Cabin nightclub in Dundee, saying: “I was out last night in Dundee and was spiked via injection…I have no memory of the night after half 11 and instead woke up in the morning with the feeling of pins and needles in my arm.
“It wasn’t until later in the day that I noticed a jag mark on the back of my arm and I am now having to go to hospital to get checked. [It] left me unable to walk without the help of someone else and I could barely string a sentence together, thankfully I was not alone and had a friend with me.”
In response to these attacks, students are planning nightclub boycotts across the country as they demand tighter security, including tighter checks on entry. “We deserve to have FUN on our nights out,” Edinburgh’s Girls Night In campaign posted on Instagram. “It’s not fair that our club experiences are being tainted by the fear, worry and anxiety that we are going to be drugged.”
A petition, which has already reached over 128,000 signatures, has also surfaced online to make it a legal requirement for guests to be searched on entry at nightclubs for “date rape” drugs and weapons on entry. Victims like Zara Owen are pleading for security to be bolstered at venues, with extra bag and pocket searches and drug-testing kits readily available.
When speaking to the BBC, Zara Owen said: “I’m genuinely really scared. It’s one of those things that you hear about, but you never think will happen to you,” she stated. “It makes you question yourself: Why me and how?”
Home Secretary Priti Patel has now asked the police for updates on the situation, and police chiefs are now tasked by the Commons Home Affairs Committee to urgently assess the scale of the problem across the United Kingdom.
If you or someone you know has been affected by this story, please head to Drinkaware for more information on drink spiking. You can call Victim Support on 08 08 16 89 111 or find help via their website.
