Woman hurt in fall at club fears drink spiked

SECOND INCIDENT REPORTED IN THE CITY IN WEEKS

A WOMAN who needed hospital treatment for injuries suffered in a fall at a nightclub believes her drink had been spiked.

Charlotte Slaymaker, pictured, had been on a Saturday night out in the city centre with her boyfriend and friends when the incident happened.

The 22-year-old, from Clarendon Park, Leicester, fell violently ill after “only two drinks” and slashed her hand on broken glass after collapsing on the floor.

Several stitches were needed to cuts on her fingers.

“I’d had only two drinks all night,” she said. “It was the first time I’d been out to a club since they reopened and it was the only venue I visited.

“I can’t figure out how it would have happened because I was out with my boyfriend and a group of close friends and we pretty much stayed together all night.”

Charlotted said she arrived at the club at about 10.30pm. She said: “It was quite empty to start with but it soon started to fill up.

“By about 1am it started to get rammed but even then we stayed together as a group and didn’t really chat or talk to anyone else.

“It was about then I started to feel a bit woozy. I remember thinking ‘that’s strange’ because I shouldn’t have felt drunk after just two drinks.

“I remember going downstairs and looking for somewhere to sit down and that’s when I must have passed out or something.

“I woke up feeling violently ill and a friend was with me. She helped me to the bathroom and that’s when I noticed blood all over my hand.

“I think I must have fallen over and cut my hand on a glass. At this stage I was throwing up and that didn’t stop for the remainder of the night.”

A first aider tended to her wounds, but she continued being sick and her boyfriend and friends took her to accident and emergency.

“I continued throwing up at the hospital,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt that bad.

“They did a blood test but couldn’t determine what it was I’d taken. I think that was down to – fortunately – my body rejecting what I was given.

“I felt awful for several days and couldn’t go to work that week because of the injury to my hand.

“I just knew I’d been spiked. There is nothing else that could have accounted for what happened.”

Her case was the second time in a matter of weeks that a woman has contacted the Mercury to report having had her drink spiked. Sophie Pearce, 19, from Braunstone, woke up in Leicester Royal Infirmary attached to IV lines and a heart monitor on August 8, having suffered three seizures.

Medics found ketamine – a date rape drug – in her system.

She claimed her drink had been spiked during a night out at the same venue Charlotte visited.

Both women informed police about their experiences. Their cases are being investigated.

Charlotte said: “I read about Sophie and, when I was leaving the club, two other random girls had also come to reception and said they’d been spiked.

“I think clubs need to do more to warn people of the dangers and take people’s concerns more seriously. You get the feeling you’re being treated as just another drunk girl.

“I wanted to speak out to warn other women – and men I suppose – to just be extra careful when out in town.

“I kept my drinks in my hand but it still happened. It appears it only takes a moment to be distracted, which is quite frightening really.

“Thankfully, I’m okay now but I realise it could have been much worse.”

A police spokesman said inquiries are ongoing.

Anyone with information asked to call police on 101.