Experts warn of drink-spiking epidemic as cases 'double in three years'

Experts have warned that official figures showing that the number of drink-spiking cases in the UK have more than doubled in the last three years are just the tip of the iceberg.

A series of Freedom of Information requests by Sky News revealed a 108 per cent rise in the number of reports to police forces across the country since 2015.

There was a total of 1,039 cases recorded by the police forces using the words ‘drinking’, ‘spiking’ or ‘lacing’ with the Met Police in London recording the most cases in 2017 with 179 reports.

This number had ballooned by 74% from 2015 when 103 were logged.

However, officials believe the figures are significantly lower than the reality because victims often do not report having their drink spiked for a number of reasons.

Under UK law, spiking someone’s beverage with drugs or alcohol is illegal for any reason at all, and carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. If the spiking is accompanied by a rape, assault or robbery, the sentence will be even higher.

Former Home Office toxicologist Jim Campbell, who developed the Drink Detective kits, said that the he believes that the figures obtained by Sky News were "a drop in the ocean".

He said: "Victims feel like they won't be believed. They rack their brains to figure out what happened the night before, but because of the effects of the drugs they can't remember. They need answers."

DI Daniel Boulter from Lincolnshire Police's rape and sexual assault task force said police mainly dealt with incidents in relation to sexual assaults, so cases of spiking incidents are vastly underreported.

Although Rohypnol is known as the main date rape drug, perpetrators have been known to also use GBH or LSD.

Student Dizzy Bagley told Sky News she had been targeted at least twice - but only contacted police following an assault: “It’s so common and in my head the police have bigger issues than if I got spiked. What are they going to do?

“To me personally at the time it was a waste of my time to call them ... as I couldn’t remember anything.”