Thirteen reports of suspected spiking incidents in Cork city in six weeks

Senior garda urges people who suspect they or their drink may have been spiked to report it to gardaí immediately so a blood test can be arranged

Victims of spiking may experience difficulty concentrating and speaking, a loss of balance, confusion and visual disorientation, and in extreme cases, a loss of consciousness.

A senior garda has urged people who suspect they or their drink may have been spiked to report it to gardaí immediately so a blood test can be arranged.

Chief Superintendent Tom Myers issued the appeal as he confirmed there have been 13 recorded reports of suspected spiking incidents in the Cork City Garda Division since the October bank holiday.

Recently, Justice Minister Helen McEntee described the spiking of a person’s drink or the spiking of someone by injection as very serious offences.

“They are, in effect, poisoning and they are criminal offences, under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997, that can result in a three-year prison term,” she said.

She provided figures which showed that as of November 21, there had been 46 such incidents recorded nationally since the start of the year.

She said Garda figures showed that 25 of those referred specifically to spiking by a syringe or needle, while the remaining 21 referred to drink spiking, or did not specify the method of spiking.

Chief Supt Myers told a meeting of the Cork City Joint Policing Committee (JPC) this week that as of this week, there have now been 62 such spiking reports nationally, with 13 of those in the Cork City Garda Division alone in the last six weeks.

He said victims of spiking may experience difficulty concentrating and speaking, a loss of balance, confusion and visual disorientation, and in extreme cases, a loss of consciousness.

He urged anyone who feels they been spiked to tell a close friend, a relative, a medical professional or the gardaí as quickly as possible.

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He told the JPC that if a person or their drink has been spiked, the substance can leave their system within a matter of hours.

Early reporting and identifying the substance involved by means of a blood test is vital to the Garda investigation, he said.

Higher Education Minister Simon Harris recently expressed concern that Ireland was now beginning to see an increase in the number of reports of incidents of suspected spiking following “quite a few cases” in Britain.

He warned it was now “very much beginning to take a hold here”.

A Garda spokesman said: “Any incident of this type of crime [assault/sexual assault], including those with evidence to suggest a link with ‘spiking’ will be investigated by either local gardaí supported by or attached to Divisional Proactive Services Units.”