120 incidents of drink spiking in NI reported this year

There have been 120 incidents of drinks being spiked reported to police in Northern Ireland so far this year, PSNI chief constable Simon Byrne has said.

Another senior officer said the force has been increasing its operational activities to educate people of the dangers of spiked drinks as well as identifying those behind the criminal activity.

Last month, police in Londonderry appealed for anyone who suspected they may have had their drink spiked to get in touch after they responded to an incident in the city.

One teenage girl was taken to hospital in an ambulance after she suspected having her drink spiked.

Police had said a post on social media stated that several individuals had their drinks spiked in the city.

Ulster University said it had received three reports from students who believed they have had their drinks spiked in Derry.

During the monthly meeting of the Policing Board, Sinn Fein member Liz Kimmins asked for an update on the PSNI's violence and intimidation against women and girls strategy, which is due to be published by the end of this year.

She said: I am interested, particularly as we see a rise in spiking incidents, which is incredibly concerning, over the past number of weeks, right across the north.

Will there be focus on the strategy and in the delivery plan on spiking incidents, and the solutions for responding to and tackling this criminal behaviour?''

Chief constable Simon Byrne said the strategy was a priority for his force.

He added: We have had 120 incidents of what we would report as spiking reported to us since the start of the year.''

Chief superintendent Melanie Jones added: It will form part of the wider strategy under the public spaces heading.

However, we did recognise there was an urgent and pressing need, particularly with the night-time economy opening back up for us to start doing operational activity in this space.

That activity has had a couple of areas of primary focus. There has been the education and the engagement, so providing really good information to people.

We have had some good co-operation from local councils, from Hospitality Ulster and from the department for communities to make sure that we have the right information going out to people so that they understand how they can protect themselves and what happens if they feel they have become a victim of one of those incidents.

We have also done a significant media campaign in the past week or so. We had specific planned activity in the north-west area on November 30, bringing together all people who work around the night-time economy.''

The senior officer continued: Within the investigative space we have now prioritised the opportunity to get forensic results on blood and urine samples to make sure we understand the trends around any spiking.

Then, following up on the investigative opportunities, to make sure that we identify suspect and offenders and positive lines of inquiry and take those investigations forward in a timely manner.''