Sexual Violence Centre calls for new spiking legislation

The Sexual Violence Centre in Cork has warned about the prominence and influence of toxic masculinity and how it is leading to incidents of spiking.

"There is a strong link," said Dola Twomey, who works at the centre and supports survivors of sexual violence.

"Our experience from talking to people over the past two years or so, there is an awful lot of spiking done just to do it. We have heard it referred to as a Take Them Down game and it is phenomenally sinister."

The centre has called for new standalone legislation on spiking, stating the current laws are not clear.

Last year 58 spiking incidents were recorded by gardai.

"This is only the tip of the iceberg," according to Ms Twomey, who said that based on what the centre is hearing, many incidents go unreported.

She said its engagement with hundreds of people, through their support service and Safe Gigs campaigning at festivals, shows spiking is "endemic" in society.

While overall figures on spiking are not clear-cut, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence. Data from the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit (SATU) annually also provides additional insight into this crime.

Their latest report, published last month, shows that of the 1,021 people who attended the six SATUs in 2025, 209 people, or 19%, expressed specific concern that the incident may have involved spiking.

A further 181 people were unsure whether a drug-facilitated sexual assault had occurred.

Without knowledge or consent

Spiking occurs when a person is given drugs or alcohol without their knowledge or consent. This is usually done by putting a substance in a drink, but it can also be done by injecting someone or needle spiking.

While some spiking can be motivated by theft or even as a prank, it is believed most involves an intent to commit a sexual offence.

"It is a crime, it is poisoning somebody," said Ms Twomey. "To actually put something in somebody's drink, to inject them or to put something into their vape, or literally put something into their body unbeknownst to them, that is going to have a phenomenal impact.

"Something that is done as a precursor to a sexual assault. We are well familiar with those cases."

Ms Twomey described a shift from spiking being associated with familiar "date rape" drugs like Rohypnol to other drugs.

"There are a lot of drugs used to spike people," she said. "We are of the opinion that the drug that is used is whatever is available on the street.

"So spiking can be lethal."

"Anybody can potentially be a victim of this," she also warned. "We assume that it is young women on a night out who are particularly vulnerable. And yes, they are vulnerable to this crime, but so too are boys and men.

"We are coming across people from all strands of society who have been victims to this. People at weddings, corner pubs, house parties."

'Totally blacked out'

Speaking to people in Cork City, many shared direct or indirect experiences of spiking with widespread acceptance that it is one of the "main risks" when socialising at night.

One woman described how she was spiked on a night out during her college years and someone told her afterwards they saw the perpetrators "laughing at the bar".

"They have just done it for fun but I could never understand that. What are you getting out of that? It is quite scary."

The woman recalled how she "totally blacked out" and, fortunately for her, friends got her home safely.

She also detailed the uncertainty in the aftermath, not knowing how to report the case or find out what she had been spiked with.

Another young woman, who attends UCC, spoke about the impact of her friend's drink being spiked in a bar.

"She turned around for one second and got spiked. You can't keep your eye off it.

"I think she was always more wary afterwards about drinking. I don't think she drinks after that, to be honest. It is a rough experience to go through."

Parents also spoke about their worries amid these threats. One woman described how her friend's daughter was spiked at a concert last year in Rome and had to be carried home by friends.

"It was awful, absolutely awful," she said. "It is a huge worry for parents."

Read more:
Drink spiking: why we know so little about this horrifying crime

Some people indicated that there is a stigma around reporting spiking cases, with a fear of not being believed.

"If you got spiked I don't think you would do anything about it," said one college student.

"I think you would just go home and deal with it. And it's wrong to do that, but I think that is what people do," he said.

The lack of a clear route to toxicology testing is also raised as an obstacle. It is one of the main issues being highlighted by the Sexual Violence Centre in Cork as it calls for a "more timely" and clear path for victims.

"If there was a route to toxicology testing and that was the norm, it would give three things," said Ms Twomey.

"One, it would give us a knowledge base of what is being used in spiking. It would give us, to a certain degree, the numbers who are being spiked.

"It would very importantly give information to the victim of what is in their own system. That could form a prompt for them to see if they want to report it because the big difficulty in reporting is people saying, I don't know what happened, I don't know what was in my body."

Change in the laws

The centre is calling for a change in the laws around spiking. Under the current legislation spiking falls under the offence of poisoning.

Earlier this year, in the UK, standalone legislation was introduced on spiking. While it is too early to know the impact, those who support victims hope it will improve police data collection, deterrence and victim reporting.

The issue around spiking here and how it is detected and reported has been raised with the Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan several times in the last year, including questions on the number of spiking incidents reported to gardai and the number of prosecutions.

None of the reported incidents since 2022 have resulted in a prosecution under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997. However, there have been some reports involving spiking that have led to charges and summons around sexual assault or assault causing harm.

In response to calls for standalone legislation, Mr O'Callaghan said that his department continues to give careful consideration to potential further measures to combat the spiking of drinks.

In a statement to RTÉ News, he said that while spiking can result in a three-year prison term under the offence of poisoning, it may be possible to charge a perpetrator with endangerment, depending on the nature of the substance that is administered.

The offence of endangerment carries a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment.

The programme for government includes a commitment to introduce stronger laws to combat the spiking of drinks "Our concern is when," said Ms Twomey.

"There is an undertaking to act on it. But we want it sooner rather than later. It is about coming together and making this push happen now."