A 26-year old woman who’spiked on a Liverpool hen do has shared how her friend saved the day from anyone who tried to attack her.
Rebecca Derbyshire, a landscape designer from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, was injected with an unknown drug in the Rubber Soul bar in the city-centre on September 25.
In recent days, terrifying reports have emerged of an ‘epidemic’ of young female university students being stabbed with syringes and drugged against their will.
A 26-year-old woman, (above), who’spiked’ at a Liverpool hen do, has shared how her friend saved the day from anyone who attacked her
Rebecca Derbyshire (pictured), landscape designer from Stoke-on-Trent (Stafshire), was injected with an unknown drug
Ms Derbyshire described the sensation as “something sharp going into my shoulder.” It was an unusual sensation.
‘I turned around to my friend and said, ‘I think I’ve just been injected’. She examined my arm and saw a needle mark. We looked around to find out who it might have been.
‘It doesn’t bear thinking about what could have happened if my friend hadn’t been there.’
Ms Derbyshire and her friend went back to their hotel when she started to feel ‘fuzzy, confused and quite shook up’, the Mirror reported.
During a medical check-up, including HIV and hepatitis tests, doctors told Ms Derbyshire that whoever attacked her missed her blood stream and most likely used muscle relaxants.
Ms. Derbyshire only reported her experience to police after hearing about a spike epidemic.
Ms. Derbyshire was injected in the Rubber Soul bar in Liverpool city-centre (pictured below) on September 25,
In the UK, almost 200 cases of drink-spiking incidents were reported to police in the last two months.
According to the National Police Chiefs’ council (NPCC), there were 198 reports of drink spiking across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in September and October. There have also been 24 reports of some type of injection.
Students plan to boycott nightclubs as part of nationwide protests. More than 30 universities are participating in the campaign to make venues more safe.
More than 130,000 people signed a petition calling for nightclubs to thoroughly search their customers upon arrival after reports of needle-spiking in Nottingham.
Over the next fortnight, the Girls’ Night in campaign will be spread across 43 universities towns and cities. It was created in response to an increase in drinks being’spiked’, and a worrying trend in which girls are being unknowingly injected drugs.
Victims may have fallen ill while out and only realized they were being injected when they saw ‘pin pricks’ on their bodies.
Participants in the boycott will remain at home on a designated night to raise awareness about the attacks and encourage security venues to improve security.
According to The Alcohol Education Trust’s snap poll, new figures show that 15% of females, 71% of males, and 17% of those identifying themselves as other have had their drinks spiked.
Zara Owen (19 years old) from Surrey said she blackedout shortly after arriving at a location last Monday. She told BBC Breakfast: “I know that I didn’t drink nearly as much as I normally would on a night out this night, and that the fact I don’t recall anything is terrifying for my because this is something I only experience very rarely.”
“I have never experienced memory loss, and then the next day… I woke up with a very painful leg.
“I felt a pin-prick in my leg, which was the epicenter of all pain. It made it impossible for me to walk and left me limping.
“As a young student at university, I have heard stories about people who went to nightclubs and were injected. I have heard stories about people having it through their hands or through their backs. This kind of gave me an inkling that this had actually happened to me.
One spiking victim Zara Owen, 19, (left) said she woke up ‘with a limp’ before finding a ‘pinprick’ on her leg the morning after attending Nottingham’s Pryzm nightclub. Sarah Buckle, 19, a Nottingham student, said that she discovered she had been spiked via needle to the backside of her hand while she was out at nightclubs.
Another 19-year old, also studying in Nottingham said she found out she had been spiked via needle to her back while out at a nightclub.
Sarah Buckle stated to ITV that she arrived at the club around 11pm but was later taken home by friends because she had consumed too much alcohol.
She stated, “The taxi home I was sickened all over and my friends could sense that something was wrong.”
She was rushed to the hospital by her friends.
“My hand was throbbing really hard. She also confirmed that I wasn’t drunk or intoxicated to a dangerous level.
“I knew I was spiked, but I didn’t realize it was via injection if it wasn’t throbbing in my hand. I thought, how? I have never taken a drink from the bar.
“You think spiking has to do with your drink. But you don’t think anything would go into your body.”