Moral Panics Fear of perverts in bars
	Peterellis.org.nz Home / Moral Panics / Drug Rape urban myth Drug-rapes - Taranaki Hysteria December 2006
	The Timaru Herald December 9 2006 Two more drug-rape cases reported At least nine Taranaki women now believe they are drug-rape victims. On Wednesday, Taranaki's rape crisis centres issued a region-wide alert when they realised an unprecedented seven women had reported drug-rapes to them. At least one of the victims, who has not been to police, needed medical attention following a brutal attack at the weekend. Yesterday, Safer Centre spokeswoman Lorraine Jans said two more New Plymouth women had now rung the crisis line to report drug rapes. It was suspected more would come forward after this week's publicity, and this is what has happened, she says. But while the earlier incidents were over the last week, the latest allegedly occurred in November. "These two are so distressed. They are really, really traumatised. I don't think they will be going to police." Rape crisis centres can offer victims both support and healing, she says. While some police had said the women could have drunk too much alcohol, she wanted to make it clear that drug-rape medication could also make them appear drunk. "Used with alcohol they can be used to dull the senses." Party drugs, used in high quantities, were also very dangerous, Ms Jans says. Hawera Rape Crisis manager Pam Bassett says the women she is dealing with are very confused over what happened to them. After speaking to victims, Ms Bassett says it appears there could be a range of perpetrators involved and the ages of the victims are between 19 to 53. "The calls that we have are not all young women." One incident appeared to be particularly brutal, with the victim needing medical attention, Ms Bassett says. Police are urging the women to report the incidents to them so they can be investigated. Detective Senior Sergeant Grant Coward says drug rape investigations could be difficult. But there were often crime scenes such as bars involved and police had ways to investigate, including looking at security footage. "Sometimes there is consistency of offending," he said. Ms Bassett says two of the women have already spoken to police. "These women have to be incredibly brave to go through the police process and for two of them to be doing that is excellent and I commend them on doing that," she says. Ms Bassett says victims should be aware they did not necessarily have to press charges. But they could still talk to police, accompanied by a chosen support person, so that police were made aware of what was happening.