DRINK SPIKING
Yes, it still happens – and not just in seedy bars and nightclubs...
You may think drink spiking is something that happens only in dodgy nightclubs. But these days it’s going on in seemingly harmless places like house parties and upmarket restaurants. And the perpetrators aren’t hooded figures skulking in shadowy corners – they are friendly faces with malicious intent, sometimes armed with nothing more than a bottle of eye drops.
Apopular dive bar, which we can’t name for legal reasons, is unofficially party central for students of Stellenbosch University. It sticks out like a (grimy) sore thumb against the historically conservative culture of the town. And yet it’s sought out by revellers who have heard the legendary party stories and are lured by the promise of a good time.
During the day, the bar’s nondescript exterior is masked by the town’s iconic oak trees; students sit at the outside tables sipping beers and eating pizzas between classes. Inside, the poor lighting hides the worn leather booths, while renderings of scowling military men on the walls watch over the patrons on busy weekends and Wednesday evenings (nicknamed Klein Saterdag or Little Saturday). The pulsing electronic music and cheap alcohol attracts a diverse crowd, from shoeless bohos and young professionals to droves of glassy-eyed students – including the offspring of SA’s elite.
Law student Kayla van Rooyen* frequented the bar for three years and became friendly with the staff over that time. For the 22-yearold woman from Knysna, the old
bar felt safe. But one night, all that changed. ‘I got there with my boyfriend and we went to the bar upstairs to order drinks,’ she says. ‘I greeted a few friends after I’d ordered a Castle Lite and I think I turned my back while I danced. When I got back to the table, I took one sip of the beer and it hit me so quickly. It was weird because I was sober when I got there. I’d had only one glass of wine before the beer.’
The room started spinning and Kayla found it difficult to stand. ‘I went to the bathroom to pull myself together,’ she says. She couldn’t walk or talk – let alone scream. ‘I lost complete control of my body. I was so scared.’
Her boyfriend checked on her in the bathroom where he found her doubled over in one of the stalls and promptly rushed her to the Emergency Unit. ‘I know that someone put something in my drink,’ she says. ‘I don’t know why or what they were planning to do to me, but I know it wasn’t good.’
People usually spike drinks with the intention to commit assault, robbery or rape, says specialist investigator of violent crimes Mike Bolhuis. Over the course of his 35-year career he’s investigated several date rape cases as a result of drink spiking. Spiking occurs when alcohol or other drugs are deliberately added to a drink without the knowledge of the person imbibing it. The most common drugs used are Rohypnol (roofies), sleeping pills, ketamine, liquid ecstasy and eye drops. You read that right: eye drops are one of the most accessible drugs used to spike drinks.
‘If you put eye drops in a soft drink, nothing will happen,’ Rape Wise CEO John Buswell told the Sunday Tribune. ‘[But] alcohol acts as a catalyst, and the more concentrated the drink, such as cocktails that have a variety of mixed alcohols, the stronger the reaction. It also makes you feel exceptionally nauseous and you even get diarrhoea.’ While a substantial amount is needed for the substance to take effect, it isn’t easily detectable because the colour of the drink doesn’t change.
‘Don’t accept drinks or ice cubes from strangers,’ John warns. ‘They can even spike the ice cubes if they have an accomplice behind the bar. Never drink communal drinks, such as punch. And if a friend suddenly feels ill at a party, never leave them unattended. The rapist wants to isolate her in the bathroom where he can rape her, and she won’t recall a thing.’
‘The spiking of drinks is all too familiar for [investigators],’ says Mike. ‘We’ve been doing this for many years. About two years ago there was an increase in these types of investigations. We exposed a few cases to the media to raise awareness so that members of the public could avoid becoming victims of this serious crime.’
Through his work Mike has come into contact with many of the perpetrators and he raises an eerie point – these predators hide in plain sight. ‘The person who does this usually presents himself as an ordinary person
– he looks good and smells good,’ Mike explains. ‘He misrepresents himself to gain a woman’s trust. It’s usually a person who’s done this before and knows how to manipulate women. Once he’s gained the trust of the woman, later in the evening he’ll spike her drink with a drug that he’s concocted. Either he’ll get a new round of drinks and spike one that he hands to her or he’ll spike her unattended half-empty drink.’
Cher Petersen, a 25-year-old journalism student, and her two friends were spiked in an upmarket restaurant in Cape Town by three men who ‘looked decent’. ‘There were three of us sitting at a table and we invited these guys to come and sit with us,’ she says. ‘We were having a good time, but things just felt strange. Much later, we could all feel a dopamine drop. It’s so dangerous because you don’t know how people can react to these drugs.’
While Cher says she’s recovered from the incident, she admits that it’s altered her behaviour when socialising. ‘It’s so scary because you can’t trust anyone – I just felt so violated,’ she says. ‘My friend, the other girl who was with us, refuses to go out any longer.’ The three women informed the restaurant manager of their experience, but it was impossible
‘Never drink communal drinks, such as punch. And if a friend suddenly feels ill at a party, never leave them unattended. The rapist wants to isolate her in the bathroom where he can rape her, and she won’t recall a thing.’
to track the perpetrators down. ‘He took our details, but he couldn’t really do much because those guys weren’t regulars and they didn’t know who they were,’ she says.
The scary reality is that getting medical help can also be difficult. Kayla says she had to wait almost two hours at the hospital before she was assisted. ‘When I finally got to the doctor, he just dismissed the possibility that I’d been spiked,’ she recalls. ‘He told me that I’d had too much to drink and sent me home. But I know someone put something in my drink.’
Sharon Cox, Health and Support Services manager of NPO Triangle Project, finds this interaction interesting. ‘Hospitals are able to test, as long as the victim presents within 72 hours of the incident. Depending on the substance ingested, the drugs take between 12 and 72 hours to leave the system,’ she says.
‘A victim might appear intoxicated because of the spiking; this may be why a medical practitioner dismisses the incident. This isn’t right, and a screening should be insisted on, along with a medical examination, if one has the feeling that something [nefarious] has taken place.’
It is important that people insist on being tested, as most victims regain consciousness all alone in a strange environment with no recollection of what happened to them, she adds. ‘There are great gaps in the public health sector and most public facilities are overburdened and under-resourced, but patients have rights, and they have the right to be tested and treated if they feel that something may have occurred.’
Kayla and Cher are the lucky ones. FAIRLADY reached out to three other women who were spiked and subsequently dateraped – all three chose not to speak on record as they had yet to process the trauma of the sexual assault.
When Police Minister Bheki Cele released the 2018/19 crime statistics on 12 September, it was revealed that the number of sexual offences recorded had increased to 52 420 from 50 108 in 2017/18. The number of recorded rapes in 2017/18 increased from 40 035 to 41 583 in 2018/19 – an average of 114 recorded cases reported to police each day.
There are no statistics for cases of date rape or drink spiking. ‘If there were, it would be a hopelessly under-reported incident because, for the most part, people do not report these offences,’ says Sharon.
Mike agrees. It’s almost impossible to prove a date rape case, he says. ‘Victims are usually ashamed because then they’d have to admit that they’d had a lot to drink. The perpetrator will say the sex was consensual – a classic he-said-she-said case,’ he explains.
‘It can become a very ugly court case. Your friends and family will know what happened to you – it’s an open court. The opposition will tear these victims to shreds. When this procedure is explained to the victims, most of them don’t want to open a case.’
Mike advises women to be alert and to go out only with people that they literally trust with their lives. ‘Any Tom, Dick and Harry can google the drugs and their effect on the body,’ he says.
* Name has been changed.