Stamp Out Spiking – Interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live
‘It’s the drink spikers who are the criminals so we all need to work together now to bring them to justice’
Stephen Nolan Show on BBC Radio 5
Thank you so much to Stephen Nolan of BBC Radio 5 Live for giving Dawn Dines, founder of Stamp Out Spiking, the opportunity to speak about drink spiking on his fantastic late-night show last night (24.10.21).
Not Reported
In the interview, Dawn told us that the vast majority of people who think they’ve been spiked do not report it to the police – for a number of reasons. Some didn’t think they would be believed, while others felt embarrassed or ashamed, and some were told they’d just had too much to drink.
Adding alcohol without consent is spiking
Dawn also reminded us that the commonest form of drink spiking is adding alcohol to someone’s drink without their knowledge and consent. Often this is not done with any malicious intent – but it is still drink spiking, nonetheless.
Training
Dawn continued, ‘We need to get training for bar staff, security staff, frontline workers – we need to show the symptoms so everybody understands what this is… there are numerous safety products; we’ve got StopTopps, there’s Spikeys, Nightcap…’
‘We don’t want to be pointing the finger at authorities, it’s the drink spikers who are the criminals so we all need to work together now to bring them to justice.
House party vigilance
We were also given a timely reminder to be vigilant of spiking at house parties. Be particularly careful of a punch bowl, there could be anything in it. ‘Everyone just assumes that everyone knows each other …somebody could be at that party that nobody knows’.
Terrifying
Special thanks to Holly Whitehead for agreeing to do this interview with Stephen and Dawn.
Holly told us a terrifying story of how she was out for a night in town but was driving, so she only drank soft drinks and drank no alcohol at all. She didn’t know that she had been spiked and assumed she was okay to drive home.
Holly had no memory of getting home, but the following morning she looked out of the window and realised she must have driven there. When she looks back it still really troubles her how badly things could have gone.
Little memory
Holly admits that she did not report the incident for a number of reasons; the main one being that she had so little memory of the events of the evening, and could not be sure of anything.
Keep people safe
The final guest on this really informative show was Coral Williamson-Rush from Vaults nightclub, Exeter (thank you Coral).
Coral told us of the lengths to which she has gone to try to prevent drink spiking and keep people safe on her premises. This includes increased CCTV coverage, searching on entry, drinks protectors and testers, drink spiking awareness posters and Ask For Angela posters.
This was a great show, and thank you very much to all involved
Hear the full show @