NIGHT MY DRINK WAS SPIKED

POLICE are investigating an Oxford St nightclub after a woman
allegedly had her drink drugged there.

The incident has prompted warnings for women in inner-city clubs to
beware of "date rape" attacks in which potent drugs such as Rohypnol
are added to drinks.

Linda Mitchell and her boyfriend, David Bowers, have vowed never to go
near the inner-city club strip again after their last visit became a
nightmare.

Ms Mitchell, 23, is positive she was served a spiked drink. She
believes that if her friends had not rescued her from a group of
strangers, she could have been raped - or worse.

"Anyone in my situation would have had the drink, because it was free.
People would have thought: 'That's nice'," Ms Mitchell told The Sunday
Telegraph.

"And you feel like it's your fault - you feel guilty that you should
have known better.

"But when it's a bartender, they're in a position of authority and
you're supposed to be able to trust them."

Senior Constable Paul Cleavens, of Surry Hills police, confirmed the
matter was under investigation.

Ms Mitchell became separated from Mr Bowers and other friends in a
fashionable Oxford St nightclub about 2am last Saturday.

She went to the bar to see if she could spot them, and told the
bartender she was waiting for someone.

It was then that he gave her a yellow-coloured drink, she
says.

"It tasted a bit funny, but I drank it anyway," Ms Mitchell
says.

"I just thought: 'That's nice' - it was a free drink. "I couldn't
taste any alcohol in it, But obviously there was something in it,
because I began feeling very woozy and weird.

"Then I ended up around the other side of the bar - I don't know
how."

When Mr Bowers eventually spotted Ms Mitchell surrounded by strangers,
he realised something was wrong.

"I thought: 'This is strange, what the hell's going on here?'," he
says.

Mr Bowers and a friend tried to coax Ms Mitchell away from the group
of men, but with no success.

Ms Mitchell has vague recollections of this occurring. "I was ignoring
my friends, and I never do that," she says.

Mr Bowers told police the group of men then turned the club's bouncers
on him, but he was able to reason with one of them and explain that
his girlfriend was in trouble.

"Luckily, that one security guy went to Linda and told her not to hang
out with the bartenders and to go with her friends," he says.

About half an hour after the incident began, Mr Bowers, a 24-year-old
store manager, was able to leave the bar with Ms Mitchell.

By that time, she says, she could hardly speak and her legs had given
way under her.

National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre spokesman Paul Dillon says
these symptoms are typical of the sedative Rohypnol - a sleeping aid
10 times stronger than Valium.

The drug is often added to a coloured drink to mask any cloudiness, Mr
Dillon says.

Although conscious, victims lose control of their actions. If the dose
is strong enough, they eventually collapse.

Mr Dillon says there have been several such incidents in Sydney, but
many go unreported simply because of the nature of the drug.

It also disappears rapidly out of the system, making it difficult for
doctors to detect.

"Quite often it has an amnesiac effect, and you just find yourself
waking up somewhere weird," Mr Dillon says.

Mr Bowers took Ms Mitchell home after the incident, but she soon
became ill. She was dry retching and slipping in and out of
consciousness.

About 6am, he drove her to the Royal North Shore Hospital. She was
admitted to the emergency ward, where doctors administered fluids and
found traces of drugs in her system.

After listening to the couple's story, the doctor urged them to go to
the police.

"I'll never go out in Oxford St again," Ms Mitchell
says.

"I don't feel safe going out any more. I was with my two best friends,
but if I'd been by myself, I'm sure I would have been raped or killed.

"I felt like I wasn't in control."

Mr Bowers is still furious. You'd think that if you go to the bar to
wait for somebody, you should be safe -but instead he gives you a
strange drink."

Ms Mitchell was reluctant to report the episode, but felt compelled to
do so after realising it could happen to other women.

She says police told her that drugs were rampant in Oxford St
night-clubs, and the area was "out of control".

"Basically, the police were saying to me: 'Just don't go there'," Ms
Mitchell says.

"The police said they want more people to come forward so they can get
as much information as they can."

In the past year, Oxford St has been the scene of shootings,
stabbings, muggings and kidnappings.

Fear has been running so high that concerned business owners are
considering paying for private sec-urity guards to patrol the strip.

The move was sparked by an increase in hold-ups by syringe-wielding
thieves, robberies and bag snatches.

One of the proponents of the security-guard scheme is local hotel
licensee Aaron Elias, who was robbed of $10,000 when a man sprayed
mace in his face and stole his bag of cash as he walked to the bank in
August.

Last month, a 21-year-old law clerk, Sinclair Bowers, was left
unconscious and bleeding after being mugged near the Oxford St
night-club strip.

Two men have been charged over the murder of 18-year-old karate
champion Chris Toumazis outside the Mr Goodbar nightclub, in Oxford St
in May.

The teenager, from Roselands, was shot on the street after leaving the
club.

A month after his murder, another customer of Mr Goodbar was stabbed
four times while on the dance floor.

The 30-year-old received minor stab wounds when a fight broke out as a
band played to a crowd of 200 patrons in the early hours of the morning.

A week later, the nightclub deemed security of such concern that it
began screening patrons for weapons as they entered.

In March this year, a man was kidnapped while walking near Oxford St
and sexually assaulted.

In what police believe was the first attack of its kind in NSW, the
man was sexually assaulted over a two-day period in an underground
chamber while his kidnappers filmed his torture.

Oxford St has been targeted as a crime hotspot in "crime-mapping" data
gathered by City Central police. Along with the George St cinema strip
and Kings Cross, Oxford St remains a problem area, despite the
two-month Operation CitySafe earlier this year.

Police recently issued warnings to Christmas revellers to be wary of
the criminal element moving into the city during the festive season
and taking advantage of those having a good time.

Checked-by: derek rea