Police appeal after drink spiking at a Penrith hotel
POLICE are appealing for witnesses after an apparent drink spiking incident in Penrith on Friday. A woman, 21, had been drinking at a hotel on Castlereagh Rd with a female friend.During the night police believe her drink was spiked, possibly while the women were in the poker machine area of the hotel.About 12.30am the woman became separated from her friend after being ejected from the hotel by security. About 1.30am, police found the woman behind a service station near the intersection of Castlereagh Rd and Coreen St.
The woman appeared to have been the victim of a drink spiking incident. Investigations are continuing as to whether the woman was assaulted in any way.Police from Penrith Local Area Command are appealing for any witnesses to come forward, particularly anyone who was in the vicinity of Castlereagh Rd and Coreen St, and noticed anything of interest. Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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Suspension of the Help Line |
It is with great regret that The Roofie Foundation announces that, due to financial circumstances, they are suspending their Helpline until further notice. This move has been forced on us by a number of different factors.
Firstly and most importantly - lack of funding. One of the reasons for this is the lack of support from the commercial sector and the withdrawal of funding from companies who, in better times, have supported us.
Over the years many companies have used our unique experience and expertise to promote themselves and their products using our name, or information and, in some cases, advertising on our web site. This advert does not cost and arm and a leg. It is just £400 for a year, not expensive for an advert that is seen by approximately 3,500 people per month or over 42,000 per year. However as the economic situation gets worse these companies have withdrawn their support citing a number of reasons why they cannot afford £400 for a year – hence we no longer can afford to run the telephone Help-Line.
Many professional organisations, researchers and individuals have also helped to create this situation. Somewhere on our web site we ask if anyone who uses our information in professional presentations or to help develop new products, or for their own papers or research, could make a donation to help fund our work. This has never happened in the fifteen years of our existence.
We know of many funded organisations, some governmental, that have used our information freely. Some organisations even run training sessions and teach drink spiking awareness courses, for which they charge a hefty fee, using information they have gained from our web site. We have even found copy and articles originating from our own web site on the web site of companies and organisations that have simply cut and pasted our information, not even bothering to re-write our material. May we remind everyone that the content of our website is copyright. It costs us time and money to do our work – please stop ripping us off.
Whilst The Roofie Foundation exists to help create awareness of drink spiking and drug rape we are not here for others to benefit at our expense. We don’t ask for much, just a few quid here and there to help cover our costs and overheads.
Apart from the lack of funding another reason why we are suspending the help line is that, over the years, more and more people seem to prefer to contact us via e-mail. In fact our e-mail referrals now almost outnumber our help-line calls. E-mail is also a way for the world to contact us and for the last couple of years we find we are dealing with more and more e-mails from drug rape victims around the world – the majority coming from America. This service will continue.
The Roofie Foundation will continue to exist and to provide help and information to victims of drug rape and drink spiking. By suspending the help line we will be able to concentrate our meagre resources on developing and updating our web site, providing help and assistance to victims of drink spiking and hopefully still playing a major role in raising awareness of the problems surrounding drink spiking and drug rape.
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United Nations Report warns of alarming rise of “date-rape drugs” worldwide |
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On 24th Feb 2010 in its annual report, the International Narcotics Control Board, a United Nations agency, called for governments worldwide to give greater attention to fighting drug abuse, especially the so called date-rape drugs whose use, they claimed is on the rise. This report also called for all governments to implement a 2009 resolution of the Commission on Narcotic drugs “to combat the misuse of pharmaceutical products to commit sexual assault as soon as possible and to be vigilant about the worrying increase in date rape drug abuse.”
For the last fifteen years The Roofie Foundation have been calling on the British Government to do just that. Currently there are no governmental initiatives to help combat the problem of drink spiking and drug rape. In the UK the experience of the Roofie Foundation via its helpline leads us to believe that whilst drug rape IS NOT on the increase, drink spiking for other reasons other than sexual abuse is on the increase and presents a growing problem for both men and women of all age groups.
In this election year The Roofie foundation would like to ask all political parties about their knowledge of drink spiking and drug rape, their policies on the subject, and to ask the current government what, if anything, they intend to do to comply with this UN report.
Links to the report and press coverage here: http://tinyurl.com/ybvpf3n
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Police pay compensation to victim of sexual assault for failures in investigation – December 2009 |
Cambridgeshire Police have recently made an out-of-court settlement of £3,500.00 to a woman who complained about the way investigations were carried out after she lodged an allegation of sexual assault.
The 38 year old woman was sexually assaulted in her home and then forced to a cash-point and made to with draw cash by her attacker, received the payment along with a letter apoligising for any distress or anxiety caused by the incident. A spokesperson for the force stated that an officer had been disciplined for their failure ‘to investigate (the) matter expeditiously’ and another was spoken to as it was felt that their record keeping was found to be ‘wanting’.
The incident was reported in December 2005 however it became apparent, in February 2006, that officers had not looked into her case. As a result vital CCTV footage from the bank had been erased.
The claim was brought under Article 3 of The Human Rights Act – the right not to be subject to inhumane and degrading treatment – and is the first time, as far as is known that The Human Rights Act has been used to hold the police accountable for failing to act in a thorough and proper manner.
As the claim was settled out-of-court, other courts or police forces are not bound by it in similar situations but it is hoped that it will be a shot across the bows to all police forces and a warning that if they fail to investigate a matter thoroughly there can be repercussions.
This is, I feel, a matter of particular relevance to victims of drink-spiking who often find themselves not believed by the police and whose reports are marked down as ‘non-crimes’; it is worth noting that the claimant in this matter suffers with a bi-polar disorder and this may be why her complaint was treated in such a lax fashion.
If any victim of a suspected drink-spike feels that the investigation into their claim were carried out in such a way as to prejudice the chances of an arrest or conviction then they may now be able to seek compensation for the distress caused by such.
Mike Massen – Gartons Solicitors
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
www.gartonsolicitors.co.uk
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Beware false profits…
Over the years there have been many companies selling products that are so called drink detector kits. A new one has just come to light operating out of East Anglia concentrating on distributing its products throughout the Ipswich area. However please be very careful when buying this product as it only tests drinks for Rohypnol and Ketamine.
It does not test for either GHB or GBL.
As frequent visitors to this web site know Cosmopolitan Magazine, with the support of The Roofie Foundation, recently launched a campaign to get GBL banned. If we didn’t consider it a threat we wouldn’t have contemplated this action. In our opinion, over the last three to four years, GHB, (currently a class c drug) is probably the most common drug used in the UK to commit drug facilitated sexual abuse (Drug Rape) and the use of GBL is increasing. This is due to a number of factors, one being that since the manufacturers of Rohypnol stopped producing the 2mg tablet, incidents of its use appear to have decreased. This is not to say misuse of this drug has stopped - but a product that claims to prevent drink spiking by identifying only two of the three main substances cannot assure a persons safety. Its like going out in the rain with an umbrella that is missing a third of its cover.
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