Civil servants leading on violence against women and girls strategy brief Derry PSNI on ‘specific problem’ of spiking

Geraldine Fee, a member of the TEO team working to deliver a Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy for the north, has said they have engaged with both police and the hospitality industry in the city.

“Specific briefings were given to police in the Derry City and Strabane district, given the specific problem there.

“We are aware of the issue and the range of things that are ongoing. We are looking to see what more can be done in that space, what we can facilitate and what we may be able to augment,” she told the TEO Committee at Stormont during a recent briefing.

Ms. Fee appeared at the committee alongside the TEO director for ending violence against women and girls Claire Archbold. Both came into post at the Executive Office in December after an Assembly motion last March called on the ‘Minister of Justice and the First Minister and deputy First Minister to take immediate action to eliminate gender-based violence in our society by introducing a Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy’.

The issue of drink-spiking came to the fore in Derry after police received a series of reports of such incidents in October.

Ms. Fee said: “We are hearing a lot about drink spiking in our one-to-one engagements with stakeholders and in the call for views. I sit on the Community Safety Strategic Delivery Board to ensure that joined-upness is built in from the beginning. DOJ has been raising awareness of drink spiking through work with the PSNI, its media campaigns at Halloween and Christmas and work with the PCSPs. We are conscious that work is already in train. We want to look at how we can assist that, build on that and see if there is a gap in it. We have set up meetings with our DOJ colleagues about it. We are also reaching out to the PSNI operational delivery lead. The PSNI has been working at a national level, through the National Police Chiefs’ Council, to develop guidance through an initiative in Leicester, and that has been shared with venues and the hospitality sector.”