Date rape drug outrage
2010/10/11
Barbara Hollands
EAST LONDON CORRESPONDENT
[email protected]
POLICE have expressed grave concern about a sudden surge in the number of young women falling victim to sexual predators spiking their drinks with date rape drugs at pubs and nightclubs in the Eastern Cape.
As many as 19 young women – some as young as 14 – have reported they suspected they had been sexually assaulted while immobilised by potentially dangerous drugs like Rohypnol.
It is feared the number of rapes and sexual assaults could be far higher, but that many remain unreported.
After being drugged victims are raped or assaulted, then dumped in the street where they wake up confused and disorientated with little recollection of what happened.
In Port Elizabeth police say they deal with at least five cases of this kind every month, with up to seven complaints a month coming in during holiday periods.
The figure for East London is even higher with about 12 cases now being reported every month, while there have even been date-rape drug incidents in smaller holiday hamlets such as St Francis Bay.
Colonel Conradt Engelbrecht, head of the police family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit in Port Elizabeth, said date rape increased over holiday periods when the unit received up to seven complaints a month.
“It always happens to the vulnerable or the young. We have had girls as young as 14 who become victims at house parties, as well as women in their mid-20s,” said Engelbrecht, who added that this crime had “picked up” in the last couple of years and that women were also being targeted at shebeens and house parties.
In one of the worst recent cases, a young woman had complained her cooldrink had been spiked at “a popular beachfront pub in Humewood” last December.
“She had had one Coke and did not feel 100%. The next minute she woke up in a strange flat in Central. There was another girl there who also did not remember how she got there. The flat was empty with no furniture and no-one was renting it.”
Engelbrecht said the women who reported incidents of drink spiking normally “felt like they had been raped but can’t remember a thing”.
There were no convictions in these cases because victims could not remember what had happened to them.
“And if there’s no medical evidence like semen, the prosecutor won’t prosecute.”
Police spokesman Captain Johan Rheeder said there were numerous similar incidents in Port Elizabeth.
He said police strongly suspected the barman at “a well-known bar” was accepting payment from sexual predators who then pointed out victims whose drinks they wanted spiked.
Rheeder said this had happened “several times” at the bar. However, he could not mention the establishment’s name as no charges had been laid.
“The women or their friends talk to me about it but they don’t open cases or lay charges. It is difficult because there is alcohol involved. Also, we have no proof against the barman.
“One woman said she woke up naked while she was being raped.”
Rheeder said there was another particularly shocking case where a 22-year-old student had been raped by two men in a St Francis Bay bar last December. “She said she had less than two Brutal Fruits and was not drunk. She remembers someone taking off her panties and being on top of her but can’t remember much more.”
Although the student had opened a case, there were no suspects or arrests.
According to a former police investigator who spoke to Weekend Post on condition of anonymity, sex fiends were at work in some of East London’s most popular nightspots and they frequently targeted unsuspecting young women enjoying a “girl’s night” out on the town.
He said although date- rape cases had been reported since 2007, the problem has escalated alarmingly this year, with up to 12 young women a month reporting they had been drugged and raped.
“It is very worrying. Women go out to have fun, but they should be aware because there are sexual predators all over and it is easy to spike a drink.”
The drugs used were tasteless and odourless and did not make the drink foam or change colour, he said.
“It is not the bartenders who are involved, but the guys who buy the girls drinks or who seize the opportunity of a crowded place and spike drinks.”
He said women partying in a group were “easy targets” of drink-spiking and rape.
“The perpetrators get away with it. Because of the memory loss induced by the drugs, the victims can’t remember their faces and can’t identify them.”
He said date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol and Gamma-Hydroxy Butyrate (GHB) are slipped unnoticed into the victim’s drink.
The investigator denied drink spiking and rape was an urban legend perpetuated by women who had drunk too much alcohol and then regretted consensual sexual liaisons that followed.
“This is not a myth, it really is happening and not all cases are being reported.
“Some victims are too embarrassed to report these attacks.
“One girl woke up on the pavement outside the Joan Harrison Pool complex. Another, who had only one drink at a suburban nightclub, woke up in a parking lot wearing just panties and her top. She had only had one drink. She felt like someone had penetrated her.”
He said victims were usually “shocked and traumatised” because they had only “hazy” recollections of what had happened to them due to the 24-hour long memory loss caused by the drugs.
Convictions are rare because the drugs cannot be detected in the urine 72 hours after ingestion.
“Also, because of the memory loss she cannot give clear statements. She remembers where she was before (her drink was spiked) and where she woke up, but only disconnected flashbacks in-between. And it is difficult to collect DNA evidence because the perpetrators use condoms.”
An East London psychologist in private practice, who declined to be named for confidentiality reasons, said she had counselled a 17- year-old girl who had been raped in the toilet of a well-known East London night spot at the end of last year after her drink had been spiked.
She said some of the victims did not black out completely and had to deal with memories of the abuse, which they felt powerless to stop physically.
Provincial police spokesman Marinda Mills said the SAPS did not keep specific statistics on the spiking of drinks, but that she was aware of a case in King William’s Town this year in which a woman had reported being raped after her drink was spiked.
http://www.weekendpost.co.za/article.aspx?id=613800