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Peterellis.org.nz
Home / Moral Panics / Drug
Rape urban myth Drug-rapes
- Taranaki Hysteria December 2006 |
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A New Plymouth woman trusts few
people after she was drugged and raped by a neighbour at the lowest point in
her life. The woman told her story to the
Taranaki Daily News as a warning to others after reading of nine recent
drug-rapes at Stratford and New Plymouth pubs and hotels. The woman says she now regrets
that she told no one but her best friend. She believes she should have
sought help and gone to police. "I wish I had now. It never
goes away," she said. In not reporting the crime, she
fears she allowed the man, a respected member in the community, to continue
doing to other women what he did to her. Six years ago she was in her early
30s, living alone, in shock and grieving at the sudden death of a close
friend. As she arrived home to her empty
house a week after the death, a neighbour, aware of her loss, called out to
her to come over for a drink. "I had a couple of wines and was going
home. He said, `Do you want a gin before you go?'." Sitting around the kitchen table
with the man and his flatmates – one of whom was a woman – she agreed to have
one last drink. That drink will forever haunt her.
"The next thing I said, `Oh,
my god, I'm going to pass out'." She awoke on his bed feeling
physically ill after he had raped her. "I was going to spew. I was
really disorientated. I got dressed and went home. "Then the next day I
remembered what happened. The first thing I did was go to the doctor's
surgery to get the morning-after pill. I didn't tell the doctor because I was
still trying to figure out what had happened." Just a few days later, she read in
the paper the effects of drug-rape medications and that it could bring about
nausea. The full realisation hit her. She was not drunk, nor taking
other medication. "My friend said I needed to
go to the police, but I wasn't in the right frame of mind. You hear people
saying, `it was my fault', and that's how I felt. "I was ashamed and
embarrassed. But I should have done something. I wish that I had now. I
understand how the other women might feel. It just makes you feel
dirty." She also believes the other people
in the flat knew what was done to her. "They had to know what was
going on. They weren't young. They were in their 30s. It's disgraceful. I now
find it hard to trust people." She worries the same might happen
to her teenage children. Meanwhile, police are
investigating two drug-rape cases after two Stratford women went to them. Detective Sergeant Blair Burnett,
of Hawera, said one woman went to the Hawera Hospital emergency department
for help. The department reported the case
to police after doctors spoke to the woman, and she made a statement to
police, Mr Burnett said. Both cases will be referred to
Stratford CIB for investigation. |
