Christmas is no exception for drink spiking

A Cork anti-sexual violence campaigner has said drink spiking is just as much of a danger around Christmas time as any other time of year.

Mary Crilly, Co-Founder and CEO of the Sexual Violence Centre Cork, is calling for more education around drink spiking for night-time economy staff in the lead-up to Christmas.

Ms Crilly wants publicans to move away from the ‘it's happening but it's not happening in my pub’ mentality when it comes to spiking.

She said that although some publicans are very engaged with the fight against drink spiking, many others turn a blind eye to both the offense and its victims.

“What I hate about spiking is the blame; the kind of belief that it's not happening,” Ms Crilly told the Cork Independent.

“Or there's a belief that this young girl or young guy has taken something and they're not telling you. We need to change that culture.

“The first thing we have to do is to get venues to believe it's happening. It's happening everywhere, so let’s challenge it and deal with it,” she said.

Ms Crilly also stressed the fact that the majority of spiking cases she encounters are committed by somebody known to the victim.

She said: “It's usually by somebody they know.

“If you think about a situation where somebody might be in a bar and their drink is spiked; somebody who they'll know might say to them: 'God, you look really shook. I'll take you outside'. If it's a stranger, their friends will say, 'What's he doing?', whereas they won't with somebody they know,” explained Ms Crilly.

She also pointed out there are people in Cork who spike people just “for the laugh” with no intentions of doing anything else.

Another concern is that alcohol itself is very often used to spike drinks, where the victim thinks they’re drinking one thing, but the attacker has actually tricked them into drinking something much stronger.

Ms Crilly said: “I've met so many parents, so many people who would have said this happened to my son years ago, or this happened to my daughter, this happened to me years ago, so this problem is there and the more we ignore it, the less we can change it.”

Ms Crilly’s comments come following the announcement of a pilot initiative in the UK which will see 10,000 night-time economy staff trained to deal with incidents of drink spiking under the British government’s plans to tackle violence against women and girls.

“I would love something like that, where bar staff and security and venues highlight spiking,” said Ms Crilly.

“I think any kind of education is beneficial.”

The Sexual Violence Centre Cork has long been calling for testing kits to be available at all pubs and venues.

Ms Crilly said pharmacy bought “dipstick” drink tests are “useless” as they only check for two or three substances.

She said pharmacies should “keep their fiver” because anyone who is planning to spike someone is not likely to use an easily detected substance.

With Christmas and New Year’s celebrations around the corner, Ms Crilly said spiking numbers tend not to increase this time of year and are quite evenly spread out across the year.

“There are more people out and there is more of an assumption that more rapes and sexual assaults will happen around this time of year but that's not the reality,” she said.

However, Ms Crilly’s message remains the same all year round: stay with your friends, believe your friends, and be watchful.

“Just stay with your friend until he or she is gone home,” said Ms Crilly.

“Even if that person says, ‘I'm grand, I'll be fine’, hopefully they will be, but they mightn't be and you'll feel really bad the next day if you hear something's happened to your friend just for the sake of spending that little bit of time with them,” she added.

Irish government approach

In a statement issued to this newspaper, the Department of Justice confirmed that further initiatives relating to drink spiking may be considered by Government in due course.

In December 2021, the department launched an information campaign with the Union of Students of Ireland to raise awareness of the signs of drink spiking and to give guidance on how to help a potential victim.

In the same year, the department of Tourism Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media, published the Night-Time Economy Taskforce Report.

The department has since supported a series of vulnerability training courses in 2022, 2023, and 2024 for businesses and venues engaged in Ireland’s night-time economy.

The Department is also providing funding support for nine night-time economy advisors in Dublin city, Cork city, Galway city, Limerick city, Kilkenny, Drogheda, Sligo, Longford town, and Buncrana.

The Department of Justice iurges anyone who has been a victim of or witness to assault or sexual assault, or spiking, to report it to An Garda Síochána.