{"id":223279,"date":"2025-06-29T06:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T06:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/223279\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T06:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T06:17:11","slug":"west-midland-police-bosses-call-for-stronger-spiking-laws-to-stop-perpetrators-using-prank-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/223279\/","title":{"rendered":"West Midland Police bosses call for stronger spiking laws to stop perpetrators using ‘prank’ defence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police and Crime<\/a> Commissioner Simon Foster and Victims\u2019 Advocate Natalie Queiroz MBE warned, under the Crime and Policing Bill in its current bill, offenders may seek to justify their actions as a \u2018prank\u2019 to avoid conviction.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve now written to the Government asking for the provisions in the Bill that deal with spiking be amended and remove this risk.<\/p>\n

Spiking is a crime which involves giving someone alcohol or drugs without their knowledge or permission through ways such as slipping substances into drinks or injecting them with a needle.<\/p>\n

In the letter to Home Secretary Yvette Coper, Victims Minister Alex Davies-Jones and Safeguarding Minister, Jess Phillips, the PCC<\/a> and Victims\u2019 Advocate say the amendment is vital.<\/p>\n

It would remove any doubt around reckless behaviour and ensure perpetrators cannot try and justify their actions, by claiming it was a \u2018prank\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"PCCPCC Simon Foster. Permission for use for all LDRS partners. Credit: Simon Foster. Caption writer: Mark Cardwell.<\/p>\n

The letter said: \u201cAs Police and Crime Commissioner and Victims Advocate, we welcome the introduction of a specific offence criminalising spiking as part of the Crime and Policing Bill and recognise the importance of having a justice system where victims of crime can have a positive outcome and feel empowered by the law, that effectively and efficiently brings offenders to justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn its current form, the bill refers to the need to establish intent but does not refer to reckless behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt therefore creates a risk of perpetrators seeking to justify their act of spiking as a \u2018prank\u2019, which might lead to perpetrators avoiding conviction if it was not possible to establish intent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current wording defines spiking as an act of administering a harmful substance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is unlike similar provisions, such as the Offences against the Person Act 1861, where Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm is committed by a person, whether intentionally or recklessly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tabled amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, would ensure there is no ambiguity in the law that could potentially allow perpetrators to raise a defence, by claiming that they did not intend to \u2018injure, aggrieve or annoy\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

They added: \u201cWe welcome the government\u2019s actions<\/a> in tackling violence against women and girls, including the crucial pledge to halve VAWG within 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Crime and Policing Bill is one positive step towards achieving this aim and we support the introduction of a specific offence for spiking as amended, that will allow police and partners to pursue perpetrators of this despicable act.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster and Victims\u2019 Advocate Natalie Queiroz MBE warned, under the Crime and Policing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,188,393,4884,8823,12,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-223279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-ldrs","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114765197841730412","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}