Spiking is a plague on nightlife - Nightclub boss

The boss of a nightclub in Worcestershire has described spiking as a "plague" affecting all of the nightlife industry.

Sam Benjamin, the managing director of Marilyn's Nightclub in Evesham, made the comments after two men, aged 22 and 30, were arrested at his venue at the weekend.

One of the suspects was allegedly seen taking a drink off the bar and putting in a suspected drug, before encouraging a woman to drink it.

Mr Benjamin praised his staff for noticing the signs of a potential spiking incident before alerting the police.

The victim was taken to hospital for treatment after she became unconscious.

According to Mr Benjamin, the victim had already been drinking one drink when his DJ noticed the man's "strange behaviour".

They then stopped the girl from drinking any more, which the nightclub boss said potentially saved the victim from being in a worse situation.

Security staff then intervened to stop the men from leaving, he added.

"Two of our staff are first response trained as well and they looked after the girl until paramedics arrived," Mr Benjamin said.

Marilyn's Nightclub is one of many venues in the county part of the Ask For Angela scheme - a discrete code-phrase indicating to staff that people require help.

But Mr Benjamin said spiking was an issue that was "very hard to eradicate" and had been going on for years.

He added: "As a venue, we are going to continue to search people on entry and we will do our best to make sure this does not happen."

Speaking on BBC Hereford & Worcester, Supt Edward Hancox said West Mercia Police had received 154 reports of drink spiking in 2023.

However, he said the force believed the real figure could be much higher.

"Nationally, the picture appears to be that spiking remains to be an underreported offence and there are many different reasons for this," he said.

"Some of it is around the myths and stereotypes which can prevent victims coming forward to report it.

"Or perhaps people are just unsure what to do - maybe they think something has happened, perhaps they feel unwell, perhaps their friends have seen something but not quite sure what to do."

West Mercia Police is urging anyone who believes they may be a victim of spiking to report it to police immediately, external.