Hundreds join support group for survivors of drug-facilitated rape

Zoe Watts and Amanda Stanhope launched network after being repeatedly assaulted by partners while unconscious

Two women who were drugged and raped by their partners while they were unconscious have said hundreds of people – including about 80 in the UK – have come forward to an international support group for victims of the crime.

Zoe Watts and Amanda Stanhope, who were both repeatedly assaulted by their partners while unconscious, are calling for tighter laws to stop men sharing images and videos of sexual assaults and rape online.

On Thursday, the National Crime Agency said they had uncovered a “truly international network” of organised drug-facilitated sexual assault.

It said it had identified more than 270 individuals linked to an online forum it began investigating in October last year, but that many online networks were “as yet unidentified by law enforcement”.

Watts set up a support network for women who have been victims of this type of rape, and said hundreds of people from across the world had so far joined – including about 70 to 80 from the UK.

“We had survivors from 22 different countries reach out in about 40 days,” said Watts. “A lot of these women are asking for what the signs and symptoms are and saying: ‘Oh my god, I’ve been feeling this for years. I didn’t realise this is what was going on in my body until I found the images. I’m not going crazy.’

“I think as awareness grows, we’re going to see a lot more women come forward.”

Their campaign, End Eye Check , refers to the act of a perpetrator pulling back a victim’s eyelids to show they are unconscious before assaulting them, something that is often filmed and can be specifically searched for online.

Watts’ husband of 16 years told her one Sunday afternoon after they had been to church that he had been crushing their son’s sleeping pills into her tea at night and raping her for over a decade. He is serving an 11-year prison sentence for various offences including rape.

Stanhope was raped repeatedly by her partner while she was unconscious on prescription medication, often waking up disoriented, in new clothes and with bruises on her body. Her partner was charged with multiple counts of rape and sexual assault, but took his own life before the case reached court.

She said he had told her he had taken videos and images of her, but she has no idea if they were uploaded to the internet. “We need to tackle the online content, because that is what has fuelled it and why it’s grown so quickly and globally,” she said.

Stanhope decided to start campaigning to make sure women received better support than she did, saying she “was failed by every single person that was supposed to help”.

“I woke up; that’s how I found out what was happening to me,” she said. “But some of these other women, it’s the police telling them they are a victim of this because they’ve found a video. It’s just the most horrific, traumatic experience, and there’s no real dedicated support at the moment.”

Both women were inspired to speak publicly after hearing the story of Gisèle Pelicot, a French woman who was drugged and raped by her husband and dozens of other men for almost a decade. She waived her right to anonymity and insisted on a public trial in order to raise awareness of the crime.

Watts and Stanhope say that, while Pelicot’s case has massively increased awareness of the crime, there is still a long way to go to educate medical professionals on the signs to look out for and teach young people about the risks.

“We need to be asking the medical community: if you have a woman who is struggling with her memory, very, very tired, maybe feeling sick, something’s not right – are you thinking she could have experienced a drug-facilitated rape? Because I really don’t think they are,” said Watts.

She added that a huge culture shift was still needed for people to fully understand this crime could be happening close to home.

“Are people looking at their friend group, and looking at their family, and thinking: are you safe tonight? Of course they’re not. They know Cheryl’s husband, Mark, and they know Rebecca’s husband, Tom,” she said. “And there lies the problem, because it is happening, and we’re not questioning it. We’re not even asking.”