POLICE believe someone "randomly" went around spiking drinks of a number of people in Colchester. 

Officers are trawling through hours of CCTV footage after a dozen incidents of drink spiking were reported following nights out in Colchester town centre.

Essex Police said 12 separate reports of drinks being spiked in Colchester had been received across an eight-week period.

Chief Inspector Rob Huddleston, Colchester’s district commander, said in one case four spiked drinks were one incident. 

He added: “If you narrow it down four of these reported spikings were one incident.

“It does appear someone randomly went around spiking people’s drinks.

“Not only did we combine all of those investigations under one officer so we can identify patterns and trends, we’ve got a really strong partnership here in Colchester.”

He said each case had been linked and assigned to a specific officer to investigate.

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“Under one officer we can look between the commonalities of the places people have visited, the groups they were in, all our premises that we’re working with have great CCTV,” he said.

“So it’s about trawling through hours of CCTV and looking at all the people that were round that group and slowly narrowing it down.

“I’ll admit that’s really difficult – it’s hundreds of hours of work of dark, grainy CCTV at night where lots of people look very similar.

“If we do find somebody we will prosecute.”

Mr Huddleston said the police are working with Colchester Council, which in turn has been engaging with the town’s bars and pubs to ensure punters are well aware of the dangers.

Each premises linked with reports of spiking has received visits from the council’s licensing team, ensuring staffing levels are high enough and precautions are being taken.

“All of our licensees have really engaged with us over it, they’re as keen to protect people coming into their establishments as we are,” said Mr Huddleston.

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“People will see a lot more posters up about drink spiking, I think some places are considering buying lids for glasses."

The Gazette first reported on cases of drink spiking in the town centre after horrified mum Emma Benjamin reported her daughter had been drugged while on a night out.

The 39-year-old, of Shrub End, Colchester, received a call at about 11.55pm on Thursday, September 2.

She was told her 18-year-old daughter, Shania, had collapsed while out clubbing in a town centre bar with some of her close friends.