
No-one charged in 98% of spiking related offences reported to police forces across the Midlands
Less than 2% of victims who reported a spiking-related offence to police forces across the Midlands in the past four years saw their case result in a charge, according to figures obtained by ITV News Central.
A freedom of information (FOI) request to police forces across the Midlands show in all but one force, for 99% of reports made to police, no-one was charged.
Figures also show women are considerably more likely to be targeted, with women in Staffordshire nine times more likely to report being the victim of spiking than men.
Since 2020, Staffordshire Police and Warwickshire Police made just one charge, with Derbyshire Police and Lincolnshire Police making two charges.
Staffordshire Police recorded a total of 319 incidents where women and men reported being the victim of a spiking related incident. Just one of these reports led to a charge.
Derbyshire Police recorded 568 reports, resulting in two charges.
West Mercia Police made the most number of charges compared to any other force, recording 13 charges for 696 reports, meaning in 98% of cases reported, no-one was charged.
In a statement Detective Chief Inspector Kate Tomkins, from Staffordshire Police said: 'Spiking can have a significant, traumatic impact on victims.
'Sadly, we believe that spiking is under-reported nationally. We, along with other police forces and partners in the UK, need to continue working hard to remove the barriers facing victims.
"We're working proactively in Staffordshire to make sure that victims are supported robustly and their report is thoroughly investigated. Work is ongoing with venues to help prevent spiking, through the use of stopper devices, anti-spiking kits, and bespoke training to venue staff to help keep people safe.
'This, paired with specific training for call handlers in Staffordshire to help preserve evidence of spiking and specific investigative plans for detectives investigating them, helps us respond to incidents as effectively as possible."
According to research by Drinkaware, 90% of people don't contact the police after being spiked and around half of those said it's because they 'don't see the point'.
Spiking is a crime, but as it isn't a standalone offence yet, it can be investigated and prosecuted under various criminal offences such as maliciously administering poison so as to endanger life or inflict grievous bodily harm, administering a substance or administering a substance with intent.
This is set to change under the Crime and Policing Bill which will see spiking made a standalone offence, carrying a sentence of up to 10 years. This is currently going through Parliament.
Detective Chief Inspector Kate Tomkins added: 'It's vital that we continue to act collectively in Staffordshire to ensure everyone can spot the signs that someone has been spiked and that incidents are reported to police as soon as possible.
"We can gather evidence that drugs have been in your system to help secure convictions against offenders, but the sooner we know, the better.
'We're determined to continue supporting victims in Staffordshire and to act strongly against those responsible for high-harm crimes like spiking.'
In a statement, a Home Office spokesperson said: 'These figures demonstrate that for far too long, victims of spiking have not got the justice they deserve, as deceptive and wicked perpetrators walk away free from their crimes.
'Our new criminal offence for spiking will strengthen how we prevent, detect, and respond - building victim confidence to report these crimes and bringing perpetrators to justice.'
The Home Office says police are using a number of tactics to tackle spiking and create safer nights out, with spiking sniffer dogs being trialled to detect perpetrators before they enter venues, and Project Vigilant enables police to identify and intervene against predatory behaviour.
Spiking charity, Spike Aware UK, has been campaigning for the new offence for years. While Founder, Colin Mackie welcomes the new bill as he believes it will give more victims the courage to report to police, he says: "The police are changing. They are actually up the investigations and I think that is all down to the new law coming forward. So that will give people the confidence to come forward."
But he says going forward A&E has a bigger part to play in ensuring more victims report to police, and to ensure essential evidence is collected and provided to police to investigate.
He explained: "A&E I do feel with this new law coming in, have a bigger part to play. I would just like to see the police working along with A&E so when a victim is confused and doesn't understand what's going happened to them, they are scares. A&E takes the evidence there and then preserves that.
"And if the victim wants to involve the police going forward, the evidence is there for police to use."
Colin also thinks everyone has a part to play to ensure spiking is taken more seriously, he said: "All too often we're hearing the story of they're accused of being drunk and people just want to remove them from the nightclub, police officers who will attend but will want to know how much they've had to drink."
"They just thought I was really drunk"
Eve Paris was out with friends on a night out in Stafford in April 2022 when she was spiked with a dirty needle. At the time no-one realised she'd been spiked, they thought she was extremely drunk.
She told ITV News Central: 'I started feeling a bit uneasy, feeling a bit nauseous and all of a sudden, literally it was a split second and, and that's when I said to the girls, I really don't feel very well.
"And I just completely knocked out, lost feeling in my arms, legs couldn't hold my head or couldn't speak anything like that and the girls had no idea what was wrong with me. They just thought I was really drunk."
Three days later she noticed her arm was swollen and red and immediately went to hospital in London, where she had returned for University. They confirmed she'd been spiked twice with a dirty needle, but it was too late for blood tests to detect what she'd been injected with.
She immediately told Staffordshire Police. After the investigation was launched she said it wasn't until a month after that she received a call saying they'd look into CCTV.
"I know personally places don't keep CCTV for a long period of time, especially over a month. By the August they said we didn't find anything because they didn't have CCTV. So that was that and they just closed the case."
She's now calling on police to take spiking victims more seriously and investigate reports sooner, she said: 'I remember getting the news and my mum, my heart sank a little bit because for me personally, my case has been dropped. I was so very lucky that I was okay, but there's a lot of other women that a lot worse happens and they don't get the action. And so it's sad it really is that it's not taken as seriously as it should have been."
Eve has welcomed a campaign by St John Ambulance volunteers to educate young people on how to spot the signs of someone whose been spiked, as well as how to issue first aid to someone you suspect has been spiked.
A recent poll of 2,000 people between the ages of 18 and 43 carried out by the charity found 23% had been spiked. That rose to almost half when asked if they'd 'possibly' been spiked. While 24% said they wouldn't recognise the symptoms of spiking.
Eve said if she or her friends had known the symptoms to look out for, she may have been taken to hospital earlier and ultimately had tests sooner, which could have detected what she'd been spiked with.
Three years later, Eve still hasn't been out in Stafford since. For months after the incident she was nervous and paranoid on a daily basis. She found getting on the tube a struggle and was nervous when other people were around her.
She's now built up the confidence to return to bars, but says spiking is something she's now extremely aware of.
She said: "It's something that still scares me. When I go out now with friends, I'm a lot more cautious.
"I haven't been out in Stafford since. I tried once a long time after it happened with the same group of friends. I couldn't even step foot into any of the pubs or anything like that."
Eve now lives in London, where she's at University, and says while she would have expected spiking could happen to her there, she never thought it would happen to her in Stafford.
She explained: "I thought that it would happen in bigger places, bigger cities, and for it to happen here shocked me massively. Growing up, I always felt very safe in Stafford.
"So it's definitely a shock to the system and I don't think I have the same love for the town now as I did before."
In November, the Home Secretary set out plans on police reform, to include the creation of a new performance unit in the Home Office designed to monitor results and drive up standards across every force in key priority areas such as Violence against women and girls.
The government said it will publish its strategy later this year to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade, which will include offences like spiking, and will ensure police forces across the country are contributing to that goal.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Scotsman
9 hours ago
- Scotsman
Edinburgh MP calls for urgent action on prostitution including ban on 'pimping' websites
Edinburgh North & Leith Labour MP Tracy Gilbert has called for urgent action to tackle demand for prostitution and sex trafficking, including a ban on 'pimping' websites. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... In a debate at Westminster, Ms Gilbert said she wanted to turn the spotlight on men who used prostitutes but preferred to remain invisible. She said: "Sex buyers rely on being unseen while they ruin lives, leaving us as a society and the individual women to pick up the pieces of the carnage they cause. Edinburgh North & Leith Labour MP Tracy Gilbert has called for urgent action to tackle demand for prostitution | supplied Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad "The demand from men who pay for sex fuels a brutal prostitution and sex trafficking trade. It funds predatory websites that make millions of pounds advertising women for sexual exploitation every day and causes untold trauma to some of society's most vulnerable women while undermining equality for all women." She said research had found 3.6 per cent of men in the UK admitted to having paid for sex in the previous five years. Those most likely to have paid for sex were single, aged between 25 and 34 and in managerial or professional occupations. And she said In Edinburgh over the weekend of June 7-8, some 142 women were being advertised for prostitution on one pimping website alone. Ms Gilbert said demand for prostitution was "not inevitable" and the law could had a critical role in deterring it. One UK study which asked over 1,200 sex buyers whether they would change their behaviour if a law was introduced that made paying for sex a crime found over half said that they would definitely, probably or possibly change their behaviour. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'While sex buyers are driven by male sexual entitlement, ultimately, they do it because they can. The law is not just failing to stop these men; it is making it easy. Not only is paying for sex legal in England, Wales and Scotland, so are the pimping websites advertising thousands of women each day for sex buyers to choose from. 'These websites function as massive online brothels. They are the go-to place for traffickers to advertise their victims. Pimping websites are making it as easy to order a room and to sexually exploit as it is to order a takeaway.' Ms Gilbert welcomed the Bill introduced in the Scottish Parliament by Edinburgh Eastern Alba MSP Ash Regan, which seeks to make the purchase of sex a criminal offence. And she backed amendments tabled for the Crime and Policing Bill at Westminster to outlaw pimping and paying for sex, and remove sanctions for soliciting. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Replying to the debate, junior Home Office minster Jess Phillips praised Ms Gilbert's passion and said she too had a long-standing interest in the issues raised. 'For too long, women and vulnerable people have been trapped in sexual exploitation under the guise of prostitution. The daily abuse that they suffer is truly horrific,' But she said legislation alone did nothing. 'We have to look at legislative models and at what will actually work. I am only interested in actual outcomes.' She added: 'As the minister, I will use every lever available to me to clamp down on sexual exploitation. The Government's position will be informed by the views of victims and survivors, the voluntary and community sector, which works directly with victims and survivors, the police and others.'


BBC News
10 hours ago
- BBC News
Stoke-on-Trent aids find £25k of illegal cigarettes and vapes
Illegal tobacco and vapes worth £25,000 have been seized in a series of raids in a from Stoke-on-Trent City Council's trading standards team and Staffordshire Police searched four sites in High Street, Tunstall, on 4 20,000 cigarettes, 6.5kg of hand-rolling tobacco, 650 vapes and 22 tubs of shisha were recovered, a city council spokesperson Amjid Wazir said illegal tobacco and vapes often exploited vulnerable workers and undermined legitimate businesses. The raids were part of Operation Cece – a national trading standards and HM Revenue and Customs initiative aimed at tackling the supply of illegal came after the introduction of the ban on single-use vapes on 1 June. Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.


The Independent
13 hours ago
- The Independent
Man hospitalised after two houses destroyed by Derby gas explosion
A man was rushed to hospital after a huge gas explosion tore through two terraced properties in Derby on Tuesday evening. Two houses have been destroyed on Eden Street with pictures showing bricks and roof tiles scattered on the ground. Derbyshire Police said that they were called to the incident at 7.24pm on 10 June, and that a man was taken for treatment. The extent of his injuries is not yet known, while a dog has also been passed into veterinary care. One local resident told the BBC that she heard a 'massive boom' before emergency services arrived at the scene. 'It shook the whole house. The whole street was out in seconds,' Nancy Lehigh said. Derbyshire Fire and Rescue service said: 'Emergency services remain on scene this morning on Eden Street in Alvaston following a possible gas explosion which took place on Tuesday (10 June) evening. 'Two fire engines, a command support vehicle and officers remain supported by police, building control officers, emergency planning officers and representatives from utilities. 'One dog with some injuries was rescued overnight by search teams and has been passed into veterinary care. 'The investigation into the cause of the explosion will begin later today as crews continue to work to make the area safe.' A police spokesperson said: 'Eden Street, London Road and Shardlow Road are currently closed. 'People are asked to avoid the area.'