'Needle spiking' of women in Britain stirs alarm over new kind of assault

NOTTINGHAM (England) • Ms Lizzie Wilson was standing in a crowded nightclub with three friends when she felt a sharp pinch in her back, as if she had been pricked by a needle. Ten minutes later, she was struggling to stand.

The 18-year-old said she had heard about young women being injected with syringes at crowded clubs and immediately feared she was another victim. Her friends rushed her to hospital, where she spent hours disoriented and without sensation in her legs.

"Nobody should ever go through that," said Ms Wilson, a first-year university student in Nottingham city, after last Monday's incident. "The most upsetting thing is, I could not control anything."

For more than a year, Britain has witnessed a disturbing spate of violence against women. High-profile abductions and murders have stirred a national conversation, inspired vigils and protests, intensified scrutiny of police, and prompted deeper exploration of the misogynistic culture often at the root of this violence.

Now come alarming reports, if still relatively small in number, of women being injected with syringes at crowded pubs and nightclubs, in a variation of "spiking", in which drugs are dropped into someone's drink, a crime that often targets women.

A number of police forces in England are investigating reports of "needle spiking", including 12 incidents in Nottinghamshire county. Police in Scotland are looking into similar reports.

Some who reported being spiked had effects "consistent with a substance being administered", police said in a statement.

Female students have made the majority of reports, but some young men say they also have been victimised.

Nottinghamshire police say no other offences, including sexual assault, have been linked to the reports of being injected, and there have been no known arrests for injecting someone.

Regardless, the authorities say they are stepping up patrols and working with local universities and hospitals to investigate.

Young women have called for a boycott of clubs and launched a petition calling for these venues to be required to search people on entering.

Outside the sprawling Pryzm nightclub, students removed jackets and emptied their pockets before walking through a metal detector. The club says it has stepped up searches to reassure customers.

At Jimmy Allens, a nightclub in Durham city, the wait was unusually long last Wednesday as bouncers frisked students and checked their bags - a policy introduced last week. Employees have also begun wearing bodycams.

"It's taking people longer to get in, but it's worth it," said Mr Darryl Watson, a manager.

But regardless of how widespread the needle spiking is, at the root of the fears expressed by many young women is an awareness of the disproportionate risks they face.

Putting the onus on women to fend off an attacker does not solve the problem, said Ms Sue Fish, a former chief of Nottinghamshire Police who has long been an outspoken advocate for women's rights.

"What should women wear on a night out, a suit of armour?" she added.

NYTIMES