Brisbane woman calls out culture of not believing victims

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A woman aged in her mid-40s whose drink was spiked at a bar in Brisbane says there's a culture of not believing victims. It's been 20 years since the last comprehensive national report on drink spiking and those affected say it's not good enough.

Transcript

00:00At Brisbane music venue The Zoo in April, a woman we're calling Mandy had one of the

00:07worst nights of her life. She'd only been there for 35 minutes when she suddenly felt

00:13extremely sick.

00:15I started throwing up and I actually passed out beside the toilet.

00:21The 44-year-old had consumed just three alcoholic drinks over almost four hours, with dinner

00:27in between. Outside, knowing something was badly wrong, her partner called an ambulance.

00:35She dropped so fast and she couldn't move and she was throwing up.

00:40She says she told health care workers Mandy hadn't had much alcohol. At hospital she was

00:46put in a room with only chairs, even though she couldn't sit or stand.

00:50I couldn't understand like why they weren't doing tests, like to see if it's her heart,

00:56to see if it's something, a stroke. They just left her on the floor.

01:02A spokesperson said patients are cared for as per their clinical needs, which may include

01:08sitting up in an acute chair area. And medical management remains consistent regardless of

01:14whether a drink has been spiked.

01:17A pathology test ordered by a GP days later detected opiates in her system. Mandy thinks

01:24someone put it in her drink at the venue.

01:26Horrified that someone had done that, felt violated.

01:32Drink spiking can happen at home or in public, is a criminal offence nationwide and can precede

01:38sexual assault. But there's no concrete information on how often it happens.

01:44In response to questions from the ABC, the Police Commissioner agreed processes should

01:49be improved to ensure drink spiking reports are recorded in their own right, rather than

01:55classed under other crimes like sexual assault.

01:59So we'll certainly look at whether we can improve our Q-Prime system to be able to identify

02:04that more clearly.

02:05Mandy has given up her love of seeing live music.

02:09It's made us not want to actually go out and interact with anyone.

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