A Nottingham student who was spiked whilst on a night out says she received no support from her university. Pavni Kakkar was told by doctors that someone had either put something in her drink or injected her whilst she was clubbing in October 2021.
She was targeted during a period when a wave of needle spikings were reported across Nottingham and the UK. However following the ordeal, Pavni, a 21-year-old law student at the University of Nottingham, said the university were not interested in supporting her.
“My tutor was really nice about it and reached out to them for me, asking if they could set up a support plan or counselling but they didn’t get back to me after that," she told Nottinghamshire Live. “I felt, not alone, but I thought they just treated everyone like numbers. I just didn’t think they were interested in supporting after that at all.
“I was already suffering from anxiety and depression and I think that got heightened a lot more after that." Pavni said the university only reached out to her when they were contacted by the producers of 24 Hours in A&E, who featured her story on their show after her visit to Queen's Medical Centre.
Pavni said even then the university addressed the email to the wrong person, instead putting the name of another student who was featured in the show at the top of the message. "I was like ‘that’s not my name’, so they had obviously copy and pasted that from someone else’s email, which I thought was rude," she said.
The University of Nottingham said it cannot comment on individual cases. Pavni, originally from Surrey and who was 19 at the time of the spiking , had only two drinks on the night before it became a "blur".
“I went out for a night out in PRYZM with two of my friends and they both had an argument so they left separately and didn’t tell me," she recalled. "I remember I was taken home in a taxi by two guys who took me home which was very nice of them.
“I woke up the next day and I just felt really odd, like I couldn’t really think properly or anything. I was talking to my friend and said I felt awful and really, really, weird. I had to make a phone call and I couldn’t think properly.
“I checked my bank account and I’d only spent £8 on the night which I thought was a cheap night out considering I didn’t remember anything." Due to widespread reports of spikings at the time, Pavni decided to go to A&E, where she spent 14 hours before being told she was likely to have been the victim of a drink or needle spiking.
“It made me more aware of how many dangers you can face, just from a simple night out when you’ve done nothing wrong really," she said. "Just the day-to-day activities. It made me more aware of the dangers that can affect women or people in general.
“I didn’t go out for quite a while and when I did I’d wear bigger clothes, not that there’s anything you can do to prevent it. Before that I’d have my hand over my drink if I was walking around with it. I just made sure I’d go with people that would stick together."
A spokesperson for the University of Nottingham said: “We take the safety of all our students extremely seriously and we are very sorry to hear about Pavni’s distressing experience. While we cannot comment on individual cases, we endeavour to offer our students the best wellbeing support possible and welcome all feedback that allows us to enhance our services for the benefit of our community."
It said it worked closely with Nottinghamshire Police to ensure students were supported in late 2021. More than more than 140 reports of needle spikings were made to the force over a two month period.
A spokesperson from PRYZM Nottingham said: "We are the most regulated part of the hospitality sector; we work hard to create a welcoming, inclusive and safe environment so that all our guests can enjoy a fun night out and we do everything we can to protect this right. While incidents of spiking are incredibly rare, we take all reports of spiking very seriously."
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