A university student says a night out at a Halloween bash turned into a nightmare in intensive care after she was needle-spiked on a night out.
Mollie McCooey, a final year languages undergraduate at the University of Birmingham, was at a Fab ‘N’ Halloween bash inside the Guild of Students venue on campus when the terrifying incident took place.
She describes feeling a “wave” come over her, before her vision deteriorated and she started to feel sick.
It was the second alleged spiking incident at the same Halloween event.
It comes after Mirror reports late last month of close to 200 drink spiking incidents having been reported to police forces across the UK over the previous eight weeks.
In the latest horror story, Mollie told the University of Birmingham newspaper The Birmingham Tab of how she had been queuing for a drink at the Underground bar for around 10 minutes, when everything around her went into slow motion.
“The feeling was so intense, so I abandoned the queue and moved myself out of the way,” she said. “After drinking such a negligible amount of alcohol and previously feeling almost sober, I could not work out what was happening or why.”
After leaving the Guild, Mollie said she found it difficult to see her phone screen properly to call an Uber home. Her condition quickly deteriorated.
She said her legs were jittery and her teeth "felt on edge" and she suffered a series of blackouts in the five-minute Uber ride as well as once she got home.
She said: “The next day, I found what looked a lot like a puncture wound on my arm and rang 111, who immediately told me to go to A&E."
Doctors took blood and gave her an ECG and a Hepatitis B jab but Mollie said she had a severe reaction to the injection.
She said doctors told her this was due to the “foreign bodies” in her blood, from the alleged spiking.
Mollie was then moved to intensive care as her blood pressure was dangerously low, and spent five hours in resuscitation being stabilised.
“My experiences both at home directly following the incident, and in hospital, were not only serious, but also incredibly distressing,” she said. “Had I not been spiked, I would have never suffered a reaction as serious as this.”
Mollie said the incident had both a physical and mental impact on her.
“I can see the trauma of this horrific incident affecting me for the foreseeable future, a mental burden that I did not need adding to the already stressful final year of my degree,” she said.
“I really hope that after such an incident, the Guild do better and give us women the level of security we so deserve to enable us to go out feeling safe."
The University of Birmingham’s Guild of Students told The Birmingham Tab the team was “aware” of a number of incidents within the venue and had reached out to those involved.
“We are also co-operating with police investigations,” the statement added.
“The Guild cannot comment on individual cases, to respect the privacy of students. We have implemented a number of enhanced measures to increase student safety which are set out in our recent statement and published on our website."
These new measures include increased bag searches, personal searches, use of metal detector wands, passive drug detector dogs and increased police presence.
The incident was the second reported "spiking" incident at the Fab 'N' Halloween Guild of Students club night.
Amy Taylor said her legs felt “fuzzy” and she began drifting in and out of consciousness at Fab 'N' Halloween Guild of Students club night.
Her arm was left bruised after the alleged incident at the end of the night and, after being helped into an Uber to A&E, she noticed a “puncture wound” within the bruising.
She said: “My legs started feeling fuzzy and my teeth started chattering and although I had drunken a lot that night, I have never acted like that when I’ve been drunk before.
"My eyes started rolling back into my head and I started drifting in and out."
Her friends alerted the staff at the club night and she was helped to the 'chill out room' as she "couldn’t feel [her] legs or walk properly.”
She was taken to hospital for treatment.
West Midlands Police confirmed officers received reports of both spiking incidents. In a statement, the force said: "These incidents have been reported to us and we’re investigating.
"We know that lots of people are posting about their experiences online and we’d continue to encourage them to contact us to let us know what’s happened – like these women have.
"We need this to get a better understanding of what is happening and see what we can do to prevent them and bring those responsible to justice.
"We are taking all reports seriously and would encourage anyone who believes they have been a victim of spiking in any form to contact us via Live Chat at www.west-midlands.police.uk 8am – midnight, or call 101 anytime. To remain 100 per cent anonymous, please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
"We want people to feel safe and be safe. We continue to work with bars to create safe spaces, and to carry out patrols focused on identifying suspicious behaviours that may lead us to take further steps. We're also working with support organisations and health care professionals who manage Safe Spaces during busy weekends across the West Midlands.”
The NPCC lead for drugs, Deputy Chief Constable Jason Harwin, last month told the Mirror that reports of experiences like Mollie’s were “very concerning”.
"We are working at pace with forces, law enforcement agencies such as the NCA and other partners including the Home Office and universities to understand the scale of offending, establish any links between the allegations and ultimately bring any identified offenders to justice,” he said.
