Have you heard some of the 'rumours' currently spreading through the scene about Drug Assisted Sexual Assault (DASA - commonly referred to as 'Date Rape')?

You may also have seen recent newspaper headlines such as: “Men raped by gang who spike drinks in city bars”. I want to take this opportunity to let you know exactly what has been happening and try to reassure you that the chances of this happening to you are very small, especially if you take sensible precautions.

I have personally received one informal 'remote report' regarding a gang of males responsible for a serious sexual assault. This complaint was made via the remote reporting scheme and related to someone having their drink spiked and afterwards being taken to a flat where three other males then raped the victim.

This is the only occasion we are aware of, although the victim of the rape has suggested that the 'gang' may have done this before as it was apparently well rehearsed.

I have also received two further remote reports, one relating to a male within a “straight” bar who had his drinks spiked and was subsequently sexually assaulted and one relating to an incident which occurred over a year ago that involved a victim’s drink being spiked while that person was within someone's flat.

There have not been any further reports of Drug Assisted Sexual Assault (DASA) that we are aware of and unfortunately we cannot fully investigate these incidents unless the victims are willing to come forward and speak to us directly.

I would therefore like to make people aware of what has happened, so that hopefully we can prevent this sort of thing happening to someone else.

I want to reassure you that the chances of becoming the victim of DASA or “date rape” is very small, however this should not stop you from taking sensible precautions while out on the town, either on or off scene.

There are numerous drugs that can be used to 'spike' drinks and many are flavourless, odourless and colourless, which obviously makes them very difficult to detect in a drink. The important things to remember are: