Welsh politician reveals she was spiked in 1980s

A Welsh politician has revealed her own experience of being spiked.

Labour's Joyce Watson told the Senedd how she suddenly became ill in a friend's pub close to her home in 1982.

"It's a very frightening experience and it's one that stays with you for life," she said.

Her comments came during a Welsh Conservative debate calling for Welsh ministers to take "urgent action" to help venues to boost security and train staff.

Recent reports of spiking of young women on night's out have recently sparked campaigns to tackle the issue.

"Spiking of drinks is not new," Ms Watson, a Member of the Senedd (MS) for Mid and West Wales, said.

"I was living in a tiny village in Wales. I wasn't in a nightclub. There was no taste to it, and I didn't know what had happened.

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"But I was lucky because I had friends around me and they knew that something was wrong, and they made sure that I got home.

"I thought that I was ill, they thought that I was ill. My friend raised the alarm with my husband and I eventually woke up the next day."

The incident had left her temporarily unable to see any colours and it was not until "many hours later" that her full vision was restored.

The former pub licensee said she did not know what had happened until she talked about it to her own customers, when one of them suggested she may have had her drink spiked.

"What I do know is there was a stranger in that particular pub on that particular night - a male stranger, and he never came back to the village."

"It is undoubtedly the case that he had spiked that drink."

She said putting the onus on the individual and blaming them is wrong: "It is the perpetrator who is to blame - it isn't the victim."

She called for all police forces in Wales to take the crime seriously, and said misogyny should be a hate crime.

Joyce Watson said the experience has stayed with her for the rest of her life

Leading the Senedd debate, the Conservatives called on the Welsh government to work to ensure free bottle stoppers and drinks covers are provided at venues, combined with better security including checks on pockets, bags, jackets and coats.

The party also suggested staff training on spotting and dealing with spiking incidents and enhanced CCTV in venues to help prosecutions.

Tory North Wales MS Sam Rowlands said: "This is a national crisis, and we as politicians have a duty to keep our nation and our people safe."

"Spiking is awful, it needs to be prevented and perpetrators need to feel the full force of law."

'It keeps me awake at night'

Sioned Williams, a Plaid Cymru politician for South Wales West, said spiking of drinks was an issue that "quite literally keeps me awake at night, because I've got a 19-year-old daughter".

"She tells me that every time she goes out to a bar or a club or to another student's house party she is aware, sadly aware, that she has to try and protect herself and her friends from being spiked by drinks or by being injected, things which could ultimately lead to sexual violence.

"I lay awake waiting for that text to say that she's home safe.

"And, mother of a young woman or not, this issue must concern us all as we representatives of Welsh society must do more to address the problem of misogyny, sexual harassment and sexual violence, which is at the heart of today's debate."

Labour Minister for Social Justice Jane Hutt said the Welsh government was strengthening its Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence strategy "to include a focus on violence and harassment against women in the street and workplace".