“One night we went clubbing in Newcastle and I had to call an ambulance for four girls in the space of two hours"

More and more female students are reporting they’ve been drugged at clubs and pubs, with some saying needles were used
thetimes.co.uk/article/spiked…
When Isabella Arthur woke up in her college room at the end of the summer term with a thumping headache, sweating and shivering, she couldn’t believe she had got drunk the night before
She had gone out for a quick catch-up with friends in exam week but can remember nothing after reaching the bar

She looked at her bank statement and the payment was for a drink and a shot of Tequila Rose. It must have been spiked
Now in her second year and 20, Isabella was determined that it wouldn’t happen to this year’s freshers at Durham University

thetimes.co.uk/article/spiked…
There are now lists of the number of students during freshers week in each nightclub who suspected that their drinks were spiked: Babylon 29, Klute 23, Players 21.

“We are cancelling socials and avoiding clubs. It feels like the pandemic but scarier"
Students are becoming increasingly frightened as more and more post appalling stories of waking up in car parks, alleys and bedrooms with no idea how they got there, often plastered in vomit, barely able to move, terrified of what might have happened while they were unconscious
This can’t be dismissed as hysteria, and it comes at a time when women are still trying to comprehend the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard in March.

“This hasn’t been ‘trendified’. It has definitely escalated appallingly since I left Durham,” says Jess Jones
“I think some men in lockdown became de-socialised. Locked away they became caught up in incel forums and other misogynistic platforms, and it’s easy to buy drugs online”

thetimes.co.uk/article/spiked…
One of the most frightening issues, she says, is that some seem to be doing it for fun, to humiliate and degrade women without touching them
Increasing numbers of young women have reported being stabbed by a needle and passing out, paralysed. At Bristol, female students have begun wearing jeans and leather jackets to parties as protection from attackers
“I wouldn’t wear a crop top now, but it’s sweltering going out in full protective gear,” says Lola Miles, a 21-year-old third-year student
The founder of @ei_movement, @somacjsara explains that even when a victim has been drugged and abused, “the victim-blaming attitudes are prevalent. ‘Just accept you drank too much,’ people say"
Sorcha Kahn, co-chairwoman of the Labour club at Cambridge, says: “We are always told to be aware. This isn’t about the behaviour of women but predatory men and club-owners”

Read more: thetimes.co.uk/article/spiked…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with The Times

The Times Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @thetimes

22 Oct
For Jesse Armstrong (@jessearmstrong1), who co-wrote Peep Show, Fresh Meat and three seasons of The Thick of It, #Succession has brought a new level of acclaim.

We sat down with the show’s creator and asked what he has planned for its fourth season. thetimes.co.uk/article/succes…
Jesse Armstrong surely has a hard task of maintaining the stratospheric standards of a comedy drama whose quality is now being compared to The Sopranos.

He need not worry, however. The third season’s debut episode on Monday won its biggest audience for Sky Atlantic and Now. Image
Critics have all but unanimously awarded five-star reviews.

“It feels like it went OK, so that’s nice,” says Armstrong, a modest man speaking from his London home where he writes most of Succession. thetimes.co.uk/article/succes…
Read 8 tweets
22 Oct
US authorities have reported that the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins has been killed and director Joel Souza wounded when the actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on a movie set in New Mexico thetimes.co.uk/article/alec-b…
A spokesman for the actor said that there had been an accident involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks

But what is a prop gun?

It looks like a real gun in every respect – but is loaded with blank cartridges
What is a blank cartridge, then?

The firing mechanism is the same as for a live round. There is a build-up of gas to create sufficient pressure to produce an explosive sound and a muzzle flash but there is no bullet at the end of the cartridge Image
Read 9 tweets
21 Oct
#WorldAtFive🌍: A rash of developments has raised fears for the country’s environment and heritage, and turned attention back to the corruption exposed by Daphne Caruana Galizia before her murder five years ago, writes Tom Kington thetimes.co.uk/article/maltas…
After a decade in which Malta’s economy was turbo-charged by banking, online gambling and passport sales to Asian billionaires and oligarchs, a resulting rash of construction has allegedly been accelerated by quick permits and conflicts of interest.
In Xaghra, close to Qala, cranes dominate the skyline and trucks pound down narrow streets filled with dust clouds from building sites as developers seize the chance to build apartments overlooking the nearby Ramla beach. Image
Read 12 tweets
21 Oct
Whitehall Editor, @Smyth_Chris, digs into everything you need to know about Covid-19 booster jabs.

thetimes.co.uk/article/when-c…
How can I book my Covid booster jab?

The NHS should send out invitations 182 days after your second dose – roughly six months – if you are over 50 or have one of the chronic conditions that make younger people eligible.
There are complaints that older people in some areas are yet to receive these invites. As of last night, anyone in the qualifying groups still waiting for an invitation can make an appointment for a booster vaccine a week after becoming eligible. thetimes.co.uk/article/when-c…
Read 15 tweets
20 Oct
#WorldatFive 🌎: The once mighty Republicans party is nearly a decade out of power and is still weeks from choosing its candidate to face President Macron.

With each passing day it loses ground to a racist outsider, @CharlesBremner writes. thetimes.co.uk/article/french…
With the election six months away, many MPs are appalled that the centre-right party is waiting another six weeks before anointing its champion to resist the recent ambush of the right by Zemmour, the anti-Muslim TV pundit.
A quarter of people who voted for the last Republicans presidential candidate, the scandal-dogged François Fillon, are telling pollsters that in next April’s election they will back Zemmour, who has several convictions for hate speech.
Read 4 tweets
20 Oct
Will there be another lockdown?

The Times analyses the best and worst case scenarios for winter as the UK faces flu season and a potential surge in Covid-19 thetimes.co.uk/article/will-t…
The UK is now a major outlier in Europe when it comes to Covid cases Image
Likewise, the number of people dying from Covid in the country also sit above our continental counterparts – and continue to creep up Image
Read 13 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(