Student tells of trauma of being spiked on night out
A‘It’s the emotional side of things which has been the toughest to deal with. It has shaken me to the core’ MOLLIE MCCOOEY
DEVON woman has told of a terrifying experience which has left her traumatised, after she was spiked by an injection while on a night out.
Student Mollie McCooey said she woke up dazed, confused and still in the previous night’s clothes following the incident while enjoying herself out at a university Halloween party, according to the Birmingham Mail.
The 22-year-old, who struggled to recollect the night’s events, said it was not until she had a shower that she noticed a small, red puncture wound in the back of her right arm.
The fourth-year University of Birmingham student was one of two girls allegedly spiked by injections at a Fab ‘N’ Halloween bash on campus.
The attack is among 19 needle spikings reported to West Midlands Police over the past three months.
Mollie, from Devon, said the incident, which left her in intensive care overnight, has caused her lasting mental trauma.
“It’s the emotional side of things which has been the toughest to deal with,” she said.
“It has shaken me to the core. Every time I close my eyes, I wake up and see the state of my room that morning. It was horrible. I have no memory of how it happened.
“Your room is meant to be a sanctuary, a place where you feel safe, but the experience has made me feel very unsure about everything.”
It is the element of the unknown which Mollie says is the hardest to process.
Having spent hours drifting in and out of consciousness during the night of the attack, she is still unable to connect the series of blurry flashbacks which form her recollections.
“It makes me feel very unsure about myself,” she added.
Since the attack, Mollie, a finalyear modern languages student, has been juggling university deadlines with police statements and welfare meetings.
She said it has added to the pressure of what already promises to be a difficult year.
“I feel very distracted, I can’t concentrate and I’m having trouble sleeping,” she added.
“When you look fine, people expect a lot more from you, but the truth is I’m struggling to find that drive to work.
“I’m just so emotionally drained by it all. You want to end your last year at university on some sort of high, so you feel the pressure to dust it off, but it’s not something that goes away overnight.
“The fact I was spiked on campus makes it very likely that the perpetrator was a student. I could literally walk past them any time – it’s all very unnerving.”
For Mollie, it is this lasting mental trauma that she believes has been overlooked in the current conversations happening around spiking. She wants to use her experience to get this conversation started.
“I want people to see the bigger picture,” she said. “People always ask me how I am and whether I’ve had any more hospital appointments but it’s not just that, it’s everything that comes with it.
“Even the little things, it sounds minor, but I lost something very important to me that night. It was a ring which has huge sentimental value to me – I haven’t taken it off for over six years.
“I don’t know how I lost it or where it could be.
“Some people think that because a certain number of weeks has passed you’ll be fine, but you can’t put a time frame on trauma.
“It’s one thing to recover from the event itself, but you don’t forget it.”