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Home / Moral Panics / Drug
Rape urban myth Drug-rapes
- Taranaki Hysteria December 2006 |
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Rapists who succeed in drugging
people for sex are not going to stop, says an expert criminal profiler. "If successful, they just
keep going," says Detective Sergeant Dave Henwood, head of the police
criminal profiling unit based in Auckland. Mr Henwood's alarming statement
has come as two alleged drug-rapes are being investigated by Stratford
police. To date, no one has been arrested. Seven other New Plymouth and
Stratford women have also told Rape Crisis centres they have been the victims
of drug-rape recently. "If you have offenders who
are successfully offending and have a modus operandi that is proven
successful, why would they stop?" Mr Henwood said. "Some drug-rape could be a
means to an end. They are sexually-motivated offenders, anyway, and this is
the way they carry it out." Mr Henwood gave the example of an
Iranian-born man, Pourshad Marco Arvand, found guilty in 2003 of drugging
eight Asian women by slipping the sedative diazepam into drinks of orange
juice and sherry. Three were sexually violated or
indecently assaulted while drugged. Some of the women said they could remember
the events but were powerless to stop them. Arvand, then 36, was jailed for 17
years. Police suspected then that there
were many more victims. Mr Henwood says drug-rapes are
committed for many different reasons. In some cases, offenders are in
the drug scene and plied vulnerable people with a combination of drugs. "And then they get a more
compliant and enthusiatic person." A more sinister reason was little
to do with sex. The offender could easily find their own partner, but enjoyed
using drugs so they had control and power over their victim, Mr Henwood said.
Other offenders resort to drugs
because they are unable to attract a partner. For example, they could be past
their prime, perhaps in their 40s or 50s, "so they are going to be on
the list". Mr Henwood says the drug rapists
will remain at large as long as their victims do not talk to police. "Go to police. It is the only
way it's going to be resolved." If half a dozen women were telling
the same story then the offenders could be successfully prosecuted because
"logic will prevail", he said. He believes alcohol remains the
most common drug used to take advantage of someone. "Alcohol is the
supremo . . . and has been successful for many hundreds of years," Mr
Henwood said. Yesterday, the second Stratford
drug-rape victim told the Taranaki Daily News she had been angered over
public comments that drug-rape was seldom proven and more often the women
were drunk. While she has been told by police
not to talk to media, she wanted it known that what happened to her was
drug-rape. "It is drugs. They can't tell
me it's alcohol. "I'm gutted with TV reports.
It's belittling women. It makes you angry. "To me, it's like a predator.
"They can't get it so they've
got to go to the extent of drugging them so they are helpless. It's just like
raping a baby," she said. |
