Spiking victim Kate McCann says she feels ‘ashamed’ for failing to report incident to police – as broadcaster bravely reveals she ‘woke up on the floor’ after her drink was drugged

Broadcaster Kate McCann has admitted she feels ‘ashamed’ for failing to report the spiking incident that led to her waking up on the bathroom floor at 4am to police. 

The Times Radio host, 35, revealed yesterday that she had been a victim of spiking explaining how she had been targeted by a ‘brazen’ group of men who did it in plain sight while she was at a bar on a night out. 

After receiving a huge response from others who had been drugged, Miss McCann said: ‘I pieced together what had happened when I woke up in the morning, having left the bar hours earlier. The next day was a blur.

‘I could not have made it to a police station or hospital even if I had wanted to, I was so ashamed that I did not report what happened to me. I wish now that I had. At the time I was not sure what I would be reporting, or what proof I could provide.’

Have you been a victim of spiking? Email eirian.prosser@dailymail.co.uk  

The presenter explained that she had ‘made it home safely’, nothing had been stolen and no other incident occurred. By the time she came around the drugs were out of her system and she had not informed anyone at the bar.  

‘It happened to me. I really didn’t expect it at all. I was out for a drink with a group of colleagues in a London bar after work, she told Sunday’s morning show. 

She said they all got drinks and put them down on the table and then one of her friends said: ‘Someone’s just put something in your drink.’

Recalling the terrifying ordeal the political editor said: ‘We asked the bar staff to tip out all the drinks and get us news ones but by that point it was too late, I had already taken a sip.

‘Twenty-minutes later I started to feel strange, very hot, I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t stand straight, couldn’t see straight. I went to the toilet and then managed to book and get in an Uber.’

However, Miss McCann said she ‘doesn’t remember the journey home or getting in the house’ and ‘woke up at 4 in the morning on my bathroom floor’.

Miss McCann said that she didn’t tell her work colleagues that she thought she had been spiked and believes there is a ‘sense of embarrassment’ admitting you have been spiked.

She said there is a worry that ‘people will just think you’ve had too much to drink’.

Re-reading the messages she had sent to her friends and colleagues following the ordeal, the broadcaster realised she had tried to ‘make light of the situation, shrugging it off to friends and colleagues’.

Her parents advised her to report it to the police but another person suggested the journalist may have simply had more to drink than she realised.

Miss McCann initially shared the details of her experience on X in a response to an investigation in The Sunday Times about the drink and drugs spiking epidemic in Britain.

Since her post, there has been an outpouring of women and men sharing their spiking experiences with one X user sharing that her husband had once been spiked.

Miss McCann replied: ‘That’s awful. It’s such a strange thing, I still can’t work out what they had to gain?

She added: ‘I was in a big group and there was no way to isolate me really – I don’t understand the point. Perhaps best not to think too hard about it maybe.’

One reply that seems to challenge the idea that spiking is a common problem said: ‘I hear a lot about it and also have never met anyone that has had the experience either. So i’s not one per cent of people that go on a night out even is it, is my point.’

The political editor responded: ‘Anecdote definitely doesn’t match data – I think that’s a very good argument for more work to be done to figure out exactly how widespread it is.

‘When I mentioned it to friends a number had similar experiences or knew people who had, so I think it’s just not openly discussed.’

In another post Miss McCann spoke about the difference in feeling drunk compared to the feeling of being spiked.

She said: ‘The one thing I would say about whether people get confused about just being too drunk is that being spiked feels nothing like being drunk – even really really drunk.

‘It’s a totally different and really horrid feeling which you KNOW isn’t just alcohol. Like being out of your body.’

Since sharing her experiences, Miss McCann said she has been met with a flood of responses from other women, concerned parents, couples and men.

‘The number of men and couples tis happens to, as well as far too many women, suggests that the motive is not always straight forward,’ she added.

Others spoke of how medical professionals accused them of being too drunk, bouncers who chucked them out of venues without offering ay help or pubs that failed to follow up, shrugging off people’s reports. 

One man had been alone at a village pub when he was spiked waking up in hospital. 

In 2022 Miss McCann fainted and collapsed live on air during a Tory leadership debate between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

Around half-an-hour into the televised debate a loud noise cause Ms Truss, who was the Foreign Secretary at the time, to hold her face in shock as she exclaimed: ‘Oh my God!’.

The broadcast feed was swiftly cut and the debate was subsequently cancelled on the advice of medical experts present at the studio in Ealing, west London.

Miss McCann said there had been ‘no warning signs’ prior to the incident other than normal ‘good heart-hammering nerves’ when the debate went live.

Data on spiking doesn’t truly reveal how common the practice is because so many victims do not report it to the police who have only recently started tracking the figures.

Between 2022 and 2023 the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) registered 6,732 spiking incidents reported to the police, 4,643 of which were administered by drink, 957 by needle and the remainder by unspecified means.

However, the true figures are thought to be a lot higher.

A YouGov poll revealed that 11 per cent of women and 6 per cent of men said they had been spiked.

Conservative MP Laura Farris told The Sunday Times: ‘Spiking is now part of an MP’s weekly casework.

‘People, mostly a parent of the victim, increasingly write to say this is an issue. It happens often.’

In December the Home Office announced and set out a number of practical steps it is taking to protect people and crackdown on spikers.

This included staff at venues that attract spikers being given training on how to spot them and more investment in drink spiking tests.