A woman has told her story of having her drink spiked, and the horrific account of her sexual assault to Kylie Matthews of news.com.au. Her name had been changed to Michele for the story for legal reasons.
When 44-year-old Michele went for a drink out with friends at the pub, she didn’t expect to black out and wake up in an unfamiliar hotel room. She had had her drink spiked by unfamiliar men, and when she woke up, she was raped repeatedly.
When she was in the pub, she had consumed a couple of drinks, but she was ‘far from drunk’. She remembered one of the men approaching her and her friends and offering her drinks, which they refused. However he was persistent.
“Later in the evening, I remember he walked up and handed me a drink in a glass … I assume that I drank it but I actually don’t remember drinking it.”
Michele’s son saw her leave the pub with two guys, and though he called out to her to ask where she was going, she had apparently said she was just getting a cab.
When she woke up, she was violently ill, and falling in and out of consciousness.
“At one stage I was vomiting so violently I thought I was going to die … I remember one of the men holding my head up over the toilet bowl. I was also wetting myself but had absolutely no control over my naked body,” she said.
The men continued to sexually abuse her even when she was being sick, and as she was leaving in the morning, one of them even said to her: “Thanks for being a great sport with all of this.”
Since the events happened, she has been working with police to try and bring the perpetrators to justice.
“I want to look each of these men in the eye and ask, ‘What do you get out of having sex with an unconscious woman?’”
Michele said that she wanted to tell her story to encourage more women to report their stories of abuse to police.
“The more people who report these crimes to police, the more essential resources and support will become available to the victims and the authorities,” she says. “By not reporting it, victims are allowing these guys to go unpunished and be free to go off and do it again to someone else.”
If you or someone you know needs help you can contact: Lifeline 13 11 14.
