As the Olive Press relaunches our Smash the Spiking campaign, two foreign students tell of their terrifying ordeal in a Madrid nightclub
A YOUNG exchange student has revealed how her drink was apparently spiked during a night out in the Spanish capital.
The Polish girl told the Olive Press how she ended up in a terrified, semi-conscious state outside a Madrid nightclub this month.
The 20-year-old and a friend were part of a group of Erasmus students enjoying a night out at Fitz night club.
But what began as a carefree evening quickly turned into a terrifying ordeal after they were lured into the VIP section by a stranger at 3.30am.
READ MORE: EYES OUT FOR ALL: The Olive Press is relaunching its ‘Smash the Spiking’ campaign with Sala Group Holdings to tackle the growing menace of drink spiking in Spain
They started to dance and were soon handed a cocktail – and within a short time they were ‘throwing up in the bathroom’.
While their memory of the night is hazy they remember someone ‘gently’ telling them to leave the club via the back entrance.
‘Someone gently told us to go behind the club and it wasn’t like they were kicking us out’, she said.
‘Someone grabbed us and told us to go this way and it was the back of the club – I don’t know if it was someone who wanted to hurt us or someone who wanted to save us’, she added.
Speaking out as the Olive Press intensifies its campaign against drink spiking across Spain, the two victims hope to raise awareness of the dangerous, often silent, crime.
READ MORE: Costa del Sol faces growing concern over unreported spiking and assaults
Asking to remain anonymous for legal reasons, the pair continued that they had found themselves outside the club, collapsed on the floor and unable to walk.
“We couldn’t walk and could barely even sit up but I somehow managed to grab my mobile and call friends still inside,” added the 20-year-old who is spending a year studying in Madrid.
“I urged them to come round the back, which likely saved us.
“In fact, if my friends had not come I don’t know what would have happened, maybe we would have been raped or something worse”.
Their pals, also students, confirmed they had never seen them in such a bad state – and the pair had drunk the same amount as the rest of the group before they entered the VIP area.
READ MORE: British tourist, 68, dies in Spain three months after being ‘sucker punched on a night out’
Too unwell to make the short eight minute walk home, the pair took an Uber organised by their friends.
They do not remember anything, not even getting into the car.
Back at the house, the girls continued vomiting and when one of them began to shake, their friends called an ambulance at around 5.30am
However, the group says that they had to ‘beg’ emergency services to send help and when the paramedics arrived they simply dismissed the incident as drunkenness.
“They refused to believe we had been spiked, even though our friends were pretty sober and all the evidence pointed to it,” added the student.
READ MORE: Private: Brother of Brit who died in Ibiza denies he took drugs: ‘He stuck to alcohol’
She insisted she has ‘never done drugs or smoked anything’ and that this ‘was a completely different feeling’ to being drunk or hungover.
Worse, she somehow felt guilty in the following days as though it was ‘her fault’.
“I thought I should have watched my drink, but then I realised it was ‘just a horrible thing that happens and we need to raise more awareness of it.”
She believes that most female victims are ‘scared’ to talk about their spiking experiences but that awareness urgently needs to be raised.
“I know of someone who was spiked in Madrid and another who had a similar experience in Barcelona last year.
“People really need to be aware.”
Have you been a victim of spiking? Have you got your own story? Contact us at newsdesk@theolivepress.es
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