Originally published in the Olive Press – currently running a campaign ‘Smash the Spiking’. The campaign has three aims: more statistics, better policing, clearer advice.
A year after she was brutally assaulted after being drugged in an Albir bar, in Alicante province, Goril Hvidsten has waived her right to anonymity in an attempt to warn other potential victims.
“If this has happened to me, and it has happened to other people I know, who knows how many other countless victims there are,” Goril, age, told the Olive Press.
“What about the girls who aren’t in their 40s and aren’t strong enough to go to the police, that are suffering in silence.”
Goril was at a nightclub when she was approached by three men, two Spaniards and a Romanian, all of whom were working as taxi drivers.
“I had only had two beers so I was far from drunk. But suddenly I was completely out of control. I don’t remember much from the next seven hours, but I do have some very clear moments from that night.
“I remember walking outside to a taxi rank, and I remember feeling safe because I was sure that the taxi driver would realise there was something wrong here.
“But then one of the three guys walked to the driver’s side and got in, and I realised it was his taxi.
“You’re always told to get a taxi home after a night out because that’s the safest way. But it was these men that attacked me.
“They drove me to the Romanian’s apartment. It felt like we drove for a really long time, but I didn’t know what was going on.
“And then I remember being raped by three men. It was like this was routine for them. They were so relaxed and seemed like they had done this before, like it was an everyday thing.
“One of the Spanish men left early because he had to go back to driving his taxi.
“It was so brutal that I was bruised and scarred all over, and they crushed three of my front teeth.
“And then it was over. One of them said ‘Okay, you can go now’ and kicked me out.”
Goril reported the crime to the police in Altea five days after the assault, and has picked her attackers out of identity parades on three different occasions.
The bar-owner showed CCTV footage of Goril talking to the men inside the bar to other taxi drivers in the area, and one identified the Romanian as his own brother.
All three men have admitted to having sex with Goril, but deny the charges of drugging and raping her.
“But the doctors say I must have been drugged because of the violence I endured. They said it wouldn’t have been possible unless I was drugged.”
Medical reports from the Hospital Comarcal conclude that Goril was drugged with Escolapamine, otherwise known as burundanga, previously reported on in the exclusive Olive Press investigation into drink-spiking in Spain.
The drug is powerful, fast-acting and notoriously difficult to administer as it does not need to be ingested but merely inhaled.
“He had it on his finer and he just reached over and put it under my nose, and I was under his spell for seven hours. It was very easy, and it was only a few seconds before it had taken effect.
“It was terrible. I was so drugged that I don’t remember much, but in the moment, I just remember them telling me to do things and I did because it seemed normal.
“I didn’t think, this isn’t right or question why I was doing any of it. They could have made me do anything. If they had asked me to jump out of the window I would have done it.”
Despite numerous identity parades, the confessions of all three men and a preliminary hearing in March in front of a Benidorm judge, there is still no court case pending.
“Everything just takes so long. I only want answers and no one can give me them. I have a Spanish lawyer and he’s trying to help me, but it’s just the system here. There are so many excuses.
“They have investigated everything there is to investigate. How much longer can they delay it?”
Words Are Very Rascals 