Hotelier warns of 'scourge' of spiking in Cork City bars after son hospitalised

John Gately says his 21-year-old son, Tom, was spiked earlier this week

The hotelier said that when people are out socialising, they should never leave their drinks unattended. File picture

A Cork hotelier has said that drug spiking is a “scourge” in the city’s late bars after his own son and three others fell victim in one night.

John Gately, managing director of the Commodore Hotel in Cobh, says his 21-year-old son, Tom, was spiked earlier this week.

He said his son "a big burly 6ft 1in lad", who had returned from a trip abroad, and had gone out with some friends on Monday night. 

Mr Gately said his son had sent he and his wife a normal text about 1.30am informing them he was on his way to catch a taxi home.

At 2:50am, his wife then received a distressing call from her son in which he was totally disorientated and did not know where he was.

Mr Gately said his wife then drove into the city and managed to locate their son near Lapp’s Quay, “a distance away” from the pub in which he had been socialising. 

At that point, his wife was so concerned by her son's state that she brought him to the emergency department of the Mercy Hospital.

“He was completely disorientated. She was very concerned about him,” Mr Gately said.

At the hospital, they encountered five other students in the waiting area.

John Gately, managing director of The Commodore Hotel, Cobh, Co Cork, said his son is still recovering from what happened.

Shockingly, after speaking with the family and friends of those present, they discovered that three of the five had also been victims of spiking — one student had even been in the same premises as Mr Gately's son.

The hotelier told Neil Prendeville on Red FM that his son is still recovering from what happened and, out of fear of something similar happening to anyone else, he asked his father to contact the radio station to raise awareness of spiking in the city.

“It is obviously a major issue. Whatever they're putting into these drinks, it just zonks people out," he said.

Asked whether Tom remembered anything else from the night in question, he said his son just remembers finishing his final drink before heading for home, and then suddenly, within 20 minutes or so, he was "completely overcome by whatever was in it”.

Mr Gately said that when people are out socialising, they should never leave their drinks unattended, and stick with their friends.

“Most of us who have daughters as well are in absolute fear that this would happen to one of our daughters where, you know, there's obviously motivations behind these things from these people. 

“And when it happens to your big burly son you kind of say: ‘My God, what’s going on here?' 

"Are they just doing this for the craic and sitting back and looking at the reaction or what’s the motivation?

"The people who are out doing this... it’s a scourge, it really is," he said.