News Article: June 30, 2006
June 30, 2006
'I want other women to know'
By ROBYN STUBBS, 24 HOURS
Raped and left to fend for themselves, two women are just trying to piece
together a real-life nightmare after their drinks were tampered with at a local
pub.
Last weekend, four men invited Evelyn and Mariah (not their real names) into the Eldorado Hotel pub near Kingsway and Nanaimo for a few beers and a game of pool.
But things went terribly wrong for the pair after they took a short trip to the
washroom together, leaving their drinks unattended. What happened after
was a blur.
Evelyn said she woke up at a bus station early the following morning bruised and sore, with one of her alleged attackers shoving a bus ticket in her hand. Mariah came to in a room at the 2400 Motel on Kingsway, without her underwear.
"I'm just trying to do everything that I do normally everyday and that's how I get through, but the minute I sit down and think about it, the tears come," said Evelyn in an exclusive interview with 24 hours.
"I just want these guys to know they're not going to get away with it, I don't want them to get away with it, and I want other women to know that these guys are doing this."
The Eldorado Hotel is cooperating fully with the police investigation into the incident, and manager Ron Price said he's shocked this took place in his establishment.
"Nothing like this has happened before," Price told 24 hours yesterday. "I've sat down with all of the staff and let them know not to leave anything accessible and to keep an eye out for an unsavoury characters," he said, adding the hotel will also improve the video surveillance.
While Evelyn and Mariah have come forward to police, that isn't the usual scenario, says Owen Cameron, president of Treoscope Technologies, a Vancouver-based company that makes ID scanners for bars.
Less than four per cent of sexual assault victims report the assault to police, but the reporting rate of drink tampering is even less, he said.
While Evelyn and Mariah wait for word from the police on the status of their investigation, they have one important message for other victims of drink tampering.
"I know you're scared to come forward, but try. I know you feel so embarrassed and ... disgusted and angered ... but how many other women are out there that they've done this to?"