I remember everything about that night up until buying a drink at the bar.
I bought three drinks and I passed two back to my mates.
The second that I turned my back,
I believe that's when my drink was spiked because after that point
I remember nothing until waking up in my bed the next day.
This is Mair Howells and in early 2020 her drink was spiked.
When I woke up, I was just panicked.
I realised I had multiple physical injuries.
My nose was really swollen.
My wrist really, really hurt.
I went to A&E to go and get my physical injuries treated.
The nurse actually told me that she'd been spiked herself and her
injuries were really, really similar.
It wasn't my first experience of spiking because a few months before
my sister had also been spiked.
In late 2021, reports of drink spiking across the UK increased dramatically.
There were also reports of a new form of spiking.
Needle spiking incidents first started to emerge in the autumn of 2021.
Dean Ames is a forensic consultant working with the Metropolitan Police.
Needle spiking is very much a new form of drug spiking.
Having to inject a drug into somebody.
Across the UK, people were having drugs slipped into their drinks
or even injected into them without ever seeing who did it.
Spiking is the act of giving
someone drugs or alcohol without their consent.
Currently there is no criminal offense specific to spiking.
Perpetrators of spiking can be charged under other crimes
but this inconsistent approach makes it very difficult
to get a clear picture of the prevalence of spiking using police data.
It's not something new.
Drink spiking has been around for many years.
One anonymous victim we heard from, claimed that they had been spiked
almost 40 years ago.
Spiking, as a phenomenon, has been prevailent
through much of my career, it probably became more apparent
perhaps 15-20 years ago.
Spiking incidents mainly occur in the night-time economy.
Police data shows that 93% of spiking incidents
where a location was recorded
take place in the night-time economy, mostly in pubs and clubs.
Our own research supports this.
With over 3000 people having witnessed or been
a victim of spiking in a nightclub.
Spiking’s impact on victims can be life changing.
The next couple of weeks after I got spiked,
that was when it was really, really hard and I think it's something
that people don't really realise is the mental strain.
You know, I was waking up every day
and I was recovering from these physical injuries
and I just think I was
filled with a lot of anger and upset that nothing was being done about it
and the person that did it to me kind of just got away with it
and they were just able to live their life.
In Avon and Somerset between 2016 and 2021
there were 486 reports of spiking.
27 arrests were made, but no cases ever made it to court.
From our research, it's clear that reports
of spiking rarely lead to convictions.
It's not an easy investigation by policing.
It's very much dependent on what CCTV can record
and any witnesses that have witnessed that action.
Spiking cases can be reliant on CCTV in night-time venues.
This reliance is due to the fact that spiking is hugely underreported.
It didn't really occur to me
that I'd had my drink spiked until I finally saw a nurse.
She told me that, that’s what
she thinks it happened to me and it was too late to run any tests.
I felt really, really lost and alone, as you would
because it kind of just felt like nothing was going to be done about it.
Many victims feel that by the time they realised they had been spiked,
they're too late to report it to the police.
The best time window to take a urine sample is within 12 hours.
That will offer the best opportunity to detect virtually any drug
that may have been administered.
The next suitable window is within 24 hours of a drug
being administered, that will give a very high confidence
of detecting most of the drugs that could have been used.
Once we go beyond one to three days
many drugs could still be detected, but not all.
Then once you go on to four to seven days, we are unlikely to detect
virtually all drugs, but there are some which can still be detected.
Unfortunately, urine testing alone isn't enough to build a strong spiking case.
The sooner the incident is reported, the more likely it is
that police will be able to gather evidence at the scene.
I think the key problems with
reporting spiking are that no one really knows where to turn to.
There's not really a set space to report that you’ve been spiked
but also I think there's a lack of trust in the police force themselves.
A lot of people don't want to put themself
through the process of reporting because
it's already been traumatic enough as it is
and I speak to a lot of victims
who just don't think
they're going to be believed, and that's why they don't report it.
A recent poll by the Independent found that four in ten women
don't think the police will take them seriously.
Our own survey had over 1100 victims
that did not report because they didn't think the police would do anything.
In the same survey,
over 800 people said they did not know who to report it to.
You’d think to go to the police
but they kind of then send you to hospital
and hospitals send you back to the police
and it feels like no one's really been taken responsibility for the crime itself.
There aren't any independent charities
or community work surrounding spiking.
Well, they weren't
when I got spiked and I suppose that's kind of why I started
‘I’VE BEEN SPIKED’ as a space for people to do that.
As a result of her experience, Mair started her own organisation
as a place for spiking victims to be heard.
Clearly, there needs to be more awareness around spiking for the
public, night-time staff and even frontline workers.
I think the most important thing that needs to change now
in terms of the state of spiking in the UK is that victims are listened to
and believed and we offer a space for victims to get support
and that we actually tackle this crime seriously and treat it as the
serious offense that it is.
At the Home Affairs Committee
we have been running an inquiry into spiking.
The report for this inquiry has been published
and contains an in-depth look into spiking in the UK
and what we believe needs to be done to combat it.
For a more in-depth look at our research,
you can look at our report summary available here.
Or if you'd like to read the full report
you can at committees.parliament.uk
We're keen to hear the Government's response to our report,
which, as a House of Commons committee they are required to provide.