spiking-by-injection-no-evidence

There is no evidence of spiking by injection in the UK, police say

There were 670 reports of spiking by injection between September and December


There is no evidence that people in the UK have been spiked by injection, a former police chief told the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee.

Paul Fullwood, who is director for inspections and enforcement at the government’s Security Industry Authority, said to MPs: “We have no intelligence of spiking by needle as such that we found, certainly in the last few months into our intelligence systems.”

This comes as The National Police Chief’s Council recorded 670 alleged incidents of spiking by injection in the UK from September to December 2021. Several arrests have been made in connection with these incidents.

The Home Affairs Committee was told that most of the victims were female and aged between 18 and 25, while most the offenders were male.

A National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesman said: “The substances used to spike drinks dissipate quickly and unfortunately, in a number of cases, due to delays in reporting these events, an allegation of drink spiking cannot actually be proven due to forensic difficulties.”

Jeanie Bell is a member of the Local Government Association’s safer and stronger communities board.

“You’ve almost got like a two-fold problem, where you’ve got under-reporting from people attending venues and often they’ll leave the venue before they realise they’ve been spiked,” Bell told The Telegraph. “But then you’ve also got venues who may be reluctant to come forward and say, ‘Look, we think we might have a problem here with spiking in our venue, we’re not getting reports but we think that could be an issue’.

“Because they’re then concerned about whether they will be penalised; whether there will be licence revocations. The licensing authority does, actually, have quite a considerable amount of power in terms of how to manage premises effectively.”

In October, The Tab reported several alleged incidents of spiking by injection, affecting young people from all over the UK.

In Oxford, one Brookes student claimed that after feeling a sharp prick in her back, she started to bleed. Moments later she “felt very sick and went quite pale.”

“Everything seemed very dizzy and kind of blurry so I didn’t really know what was happening, whether it was from the substance or whether it was my body’s reaction to being really nervous,” she told The Brookes Tab.

In Birmingham, Amy Taylor was out clubbing when she started drifting in and out of consciousness. After going to A&E, she says a “puncture mark” was discovered on her arm.

Following the alleged incident, Amy told The Birmingham Tab: “I’m not going to go on nights out for a bit and when I do, I don’t think I’ll drink for the first few nights so I am very aware of my surroundings.

“Although this might not prevent spiking, and I shouldn’t have to do this, I’ll feel safer and more in control.”

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• There were 670 reports of spiking by injection in term one alone

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• Sharon from Love Island is campaigning for change on how we support spiking victims