Student whose final memory is ‘screaming’ before black void fears she was raped

A student who believes she was drugged on a night out is now haunted by the 'black void' and fears she could have been raped.

Abby Spreadborough, 19, is still unable to recall what happened to her in the five hours or so after she was allegedly spiked.

The last thing she can remember is screaming outside her halls in Selly Oak, Birmingham, and an accommodation employee helping her home in the early hours of the morning.

The first-year English Literature student fears something may have happened to her in the chilling void.

Speaking to Mirror Online, Abby said: "It’s literally a complete black for that four or five hours. The most disturbing part is that you can’t remember anything and you can’t say for certain what’s happened to you."

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She continued: "Absolutely nothing has come back to me. I’ve tried to recall things. I remember returning there after it happened to go to speak to people at the bar and they were quite dismissive and nothing really came back to me. I went back with my parents a week after it happened to ask questions.

"Nothing has come to me at all. It’s like this void."

The part-time online tutor, originally from Farnborough, Hampshire, was out with friends when the offence allegedly happened last December. She had just two drinks before she arrived at a bar on Birmingham’s lively Broad Street, and drank nothing there.

But she says she had her bank cards stolen and was spiked that evening.

However, there is little evidence to suggest it happened in this bar.

Abby, who studies at University of Birmingham , told police the next morning. She also later visited Horizon West Midlands, a sexual assault referral centre in the city.

Abby said: "I was extremely worried, extremely apprehensive about going to the clinic. It was all very confusing. It’s not an experience I've ever had before. It’s not an experience anyone around me has ever had before. I felt very much I was going into the unknown and into the dark about things.

"I had to be in this waiting room for a while and then had a series of tests done, the general tests that happen at a sexual assault or referral centre.

"I was then contacted later on and they told me they were not going to take my testing any further. I was a self-referral because the police hadn’t referred me. So I had gone there myself. From the samples they take within a month or a quarter of a year, a forensic examiner will decide on a case by case basis who has the strongest case for forensic testing.  

"My samples were decided against testing because my case wasn’t strong enough, as obviously I was drugged and couldn’t remember anything at all. My tests were not therefore taken into forensics, the next stage.

"It was another brick wall basically. It was more uncertainty and it kept building. So I still don’t know [if I was raped or sexually assaulted]."

Furthermore, Abby claims West Midlands Police closed her case within two days.

She said: "Perhaps when dealing with the police, who had closed my case without my knowing early on, I did feel more of a case than a person.

"I was told my case had been closed when I rang up 101 a few days later. That was the Monday evening and I was interviewed by police on the Friday morning."

But since 2015, there has been a 108% increase in spiking cases in the UK. Sky News says Met Police recorded the most cases in 2017 with 179 reports in statistics Abby called "worrying".

Speaking after the data emerged, former Home Office toxicologist Jim Campbell said: "Victims feel like they won't be believed. They rack their brains to figure out what happened the night before, but because of the effects of the drugs they can't remember. They need answers."

And Abby, who nearly quit uni due to the trauma caused, shares these sentiments.

In a first-person account she penned for University of Birmingham's newspaper Redbrick , the student wrote: "Despite this statistic, following my eventual contact with the nightclub and discussions with the police, there is little being done.

"From the club I received a half-hearted apology followed by defensive comments about the 'standards and procedures' of the establishment. Victims have the right to find out what has happened to them and if this cannot be satisfied, they have the right to have quick, easy and free access to support services."

West Midlands Police said they were unable to comment on the case.

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