Cork hotelier sounds note of caution as son has drink spiked on night out 

A Cork hotelier has warned of the dangers of drinks being spiked, saying his own son was the victim of spiking on a recent night out in the city.

John Gately, who is the managing director of the Commodore Hotel in Cobh, said his son Tom had been out socialising with his friends on Monday night last, and, at the end of the night, he became extremely disoriented.

Speaking to the Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s RedFM, Mr Gately said his son had felt fine when he left the company of his friends, before becoming very confused.

“It was last Monday, Tom our son, is 21, a big burly 6’1” lad, lots of friends, very popular guy. 

“He was away, he was out of the country for a week or two, and was just back there last weekend and decided to meet up with the pals in town,” Gately explained.

“He had texted us, it was late enough, now, it was around 1.30am. Sent us a normal text saying ‘Gonna grab a cab, home soon,’ then the next minute my wife, Darina, gets a call at about 2.50am, that he didn’t know where he was, he was totally disorientated and confused.” 

Mr Gately said his wife had driven into town, and found her son in the Lapp’s Quay area, a distance from where he had been, and brought him to the emergency department (ED) in the Mercy University Hospital.

He added that three other students in the ED claimed they had also had their drinks spiked, and one of them had been in the same premises as Mr Gately’s son.

Mr Gately said his son remembered later a sensation of someone bumping into his glass as he walked through the pub he was drinking in, and he surmised that it may have been then that his drink had been spiked.

Mary Crilly of the Sexual Violence Centre Cork told The Echo she would believe every report of people having their drinks spiked.

“Only 50% of those who are spiked are spiked to be raped or sexually assaulted. The others are spiked for a 'laugh', for the sake of it. 

“So it is something that is happening, and we’re working with UCC and a lab in the UK, to try to put pilot scheme in place in Cork to test people reporting that they have been spiked,” she said.

Ms Crilly added that the Sexual Violence Centre website, sexualviolence.ie, has a section addressing the spiking of drinks.