» Drugged and raped…but what they slipped in my drink could have killed me

Chilling truth about chemical cocktails used in sex crimes.

When Tania left her cola on the table and nipped the pub loo, she had no idea of the nightmare that would follow.
Two men at the bar secretly slipped a sedative into her drink and waited until the drug took effect.
Then the whisked her back to their flat and drugged her again before repeatedly raping her.

It has taken the 28-year-old from Dorset years to get over her terrifying ordeal, but it could have been even worse. For many of the drugs favoured by rapists like the pair who attacked Tania have deadly side-effects and are capable of killing you.

One of them, GHB, could cause death from respiratory failure if mixed with alcohol. Another, ketamine, can be fatal if taken with GHB and alcohol. Then there are tranquilisers called benzodiazepines, which have been linked with damage to the brain and nervous system.

You might think you’d be safe enough in a pub or a club with plenty of people around. But some ruthless men use these places to prey on unsuspecting women – and it takes just seconds to spike a drink and turn it into a powerful chemical cocktail.

Date-rape drugs are hard to spot and fast-working. Now police and healthcare professionals are warning women to be ever-vigilant in bars, pubs and clubs, especially when dealing with strangers.
Shocking figures show that drug-induced rapes are reaching alarming levels – and official statistics are probably the tip of the iceberg as many assaults still go unreported.

The Drug Rape Trust charity helped more than 1500 women in 2001, twice as many as the previous year. And attacks reported to the Roofie Foundation, a UK drug-rape help group, rocketed from 39 in 1990 to 804 in 2000. The full toll every year runs into the thousands.

Dep Chief Insp Peter Sturman set up the Drug Rape Trust after researching the chilling sex crime. He says, ‘I discovered that there are a lot of people out there being attacked, not believed and not receiving the services that society should give them. Somebody had to help them’

Paul Johnson
The Mirror, March 28, 2002