Call for drink-spiking laws to be toughened

A charity said making drink-spiking an offence would increase safety on the island

Tougher laws are needed to tackle drink-spiking in Guernsey, a charity promoting late-night safety says.

The UK's Home Office announced on Monday it would "modernise" laws to make it clear spiking - putting alcohol or drugs into another person's drink or body without their consent - was a crime.

Poppy Murray, the chair of the Safety Night-time Economy Team (Safety Net), said similar measures should be adopted in Guernsey.

Guernsey Police said it was "monitoring the developments in the UK" on tackling drink-spiking.

'Lack of progress'

UK officials also announced training for door staff and funding for testing kits as part of a suite of measures.

However, they stopped short of making spiking a specific offence, which has angered some campaigners.

Ms Murray said moves to tackle spiking in the UK were "incredibly encouraging" but it highlighted a lack of progress in Guernsey.

She said: "We are so far behind in Guernsey: we have a 0% conviction rate for this. It gives people very little faith.

"[Reform] needs to go that step further and make spiking a standalone crime.

"All it would do is better protect the public and help with getting successful convictions for this."

'Robustly investigate'

Guernsey Police said people found to have spiked someone's drink could be prosecuted under the Criminal Justice Law 2006.

Officers said that contained specific offences of "maliciously administering poison" to "endanger life or inflict grievous bodily harm" or to "injure, aggrieve, or annoy".

The force added that it was "monitoring the developments in the UK" and it would "consider the implementation of the measures in Guernsey if it is felt they will have a positive impact locally".

It said: "We would always encourage islanders to take general precautions and keep an eye on their drink when they are out so it cannot be easily tampered with.

"Officers will also always robustly investigate reports of drink spiking and would encourage victims to come forward."