Kettering injection spiking victim says she's never felt so scared

A woman who was spiked by an injection in a Kettering nightclub says the incident has left her scared to go out in the town.

The 20-year-old, who did not want to by named, was taken to hospital after becoming unwell in the early hours of Sunday morning (October 31).

She was in The Loft in Dalkeith Place between 2.45am and 3am when an unknown person injected a needle into her waist. Police have now launched an investigation.

The victim, who is from Burton Latimer, was upstairs in the nightclub and was on her own after losing her friends.

She went to an area overlooking the dancefloor to try and find them when the incident took place. At the time the venue had been holding a Halloween 'Night of the Purge' night.

She told the Northants Telegraph: "I didn't see anyone but I felt a scratch on the side of my waist.

"I was just trying to find my friends. I didn't think anything of it but later I started to feel some irritation."

Later that night she found her friends, went outside and showed them when they realised she had in fact been injected.

She stayed with her friends and called her mum but soon began to feel ill. She had not been drinking.

The victim said she had never felt so scared.

She said: "The rest is a bit of a blur. I fell asleep on my friends and was shaking.

"I just wasn't aware of what I was doing. It was the complete opposite of my normal self."

She was sick and went to KGH where they took bloods, carried out an electrocardiogram (ECG) and gave her a drip and pain relief.

The victim is now at home but the incident will have an impact on her until well into 2022.

With no way of knowing whether the needle used to inject her was clean, she now has to take a course of antivirals every month for the next six months.

She said: "I just do not want to go out into town anymore, it's so scary. None of my friends do.

"I think it's disgusting that people can even think about doing that to women or anyone.

"It's sick in the head."

The incident comes after a number of similar spiking reports around the country.

Last month police confirmed there had been 23 reports of believed drink spiking in nine venues in nearby Northampton venues since the start of September.

Figures released last month revealed 56 incidents of spiking by injection were recorded by forces in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in September and October, in addition to 198 confirmed reports of drink spiking.

A spokesman for The Loft said they were working with police and have increased measures to protect those on a night out.

They will be offering free anti-spiking bottle stoppers, doing more rigorous searches and will have a welfare officer available on-site.

In a social media statement, the spokesman said: "After national and local reports regarding an increase in spiking, we as an establishment have decided to increase the measures available to protect our customers.

"We take all reports of this nature very seriously and will continue to do our utmost to protect our customers safety and welfare.

"We are aware of an incident at the weekend that we are currently working together with the police to deal with it.

"Customer safety and welfare is our main priority. Running alongside the current measures, we will be doing more rigorous searches upon entry, higher security vigilance, a welfare officer as a direct point of contact will be available on site as well as anti-spiking bottle stoppers free of charge.

"We ask everyone to be patient upon entry due to the enhanced person and bag searching.

"If anyone suspects themselves or a friend of being spiked, all members of staff are available to assist and will confidentially guide you to medical assistance."

A Northamptonshire Police spokesman said: "We are treating it as an incident of spiking and anyone with any information is asked to come forward quoting incident number 21000634479."