Kate McCann, a journalist and presenter, has announced that she was a victim of drink spiking while at a bar. Men who didn’t seem to care who saw them did it, according to Times Radio political editor McCann, whose drink was spiked with what she believes was a “date rape” drug. She had just taken one sip and believed that she would be fine, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. After an investigation in The Sunday Times, she shared her story.
While out with colleagues and unable to explain why, McCann has had her drink spiked. Spiking is the act of putting a drug into someone’s drink or body without their consent. England and Wales, for example, registered 6,732 reports of spiking between May 2022 and April 2023, including 957 reports of needle spiking, according to statistics from the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
McCann said she did not tell police when she had her drink spiked but now wishes she had. “Now that forces are collecting data properly, it’s really important to report it if this happens to you,” she said. In December 2021, Laura Farris, the minister for victims and safeguarding, presented a report on spiking to Parliament, citing a rise in reported spiking incidents in autumn 2021. Universities, particularly during Freshers’ Week and students’ returning to higher education after a lockdown, had the most significant number of cases, according to the report.
While spiking has been devastating for individuals like McCann, it’s also psychologically damaging. “The after-effects are the worst part,” she said. Some drugs, such as benzodiazepines, can leave individuals impaired and with memory loss long after the incident, according to the report. As a result, the Home Office said in December 2021 that the law would be “modernized” to make it obvious that spiking is a crime, but it stopped short of making it a specific offence
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