Visitors had already noticed the little man with cropped hair. With one hand on his crotch and a plastic bag in the other hand, he wandered around the dance festival Den Haag Outdoor last month. In the techno tent, visitors suddenly see him standing still next to a woman at the bar. He holds his fist steady next to her thigh. A few moments later, they see him holding a syringe.
They run to the woman. “You’ve been pricked!” When the man is arrested by festival security, it turns out that there is a needle in his pocket. „For my sugar!” the man yells as he is taken away.
For the first time on Tuesday, a so-called ‘needle spiker’ was in court. The 31-year-old Levan V. from Georgia was jailed for five months for secretly poking the woman with a needle – ‘assault’ in legal terms. The Hague police judge called his act “too bizarre for words” and also blames the Georgian for “contributing to fear in society about the phenomenon needle spiking”.
There have been puzzling reports for months of women allegedly being drugged via a sneaky jab while going out. The trend started in the UK last year with more than 1,300 needle spiking reports; After publicity about this, the Dutch police also received dozens of reports. While going out, the callers feel unwell, afterwards they discover a hole in their skin. Doubts soon arose about the veracity of the reports. Police were unable to find evidence of the alleged needlestick incidents and suggested last month that the increased reports may be the result of media attention. “Party young people who did not feel well because of, for example, too much alcohol or poor sleep, can therefore feel more quickly a victim of needle spiking,” said the police spokesperson.
flip flops
With the conviction of the Georgian Levan V., evidence has now been provided for the first time for the existence of needle spiking. The man slipped into the courtroom in his flip-flops on Tuesday. He recently came to the Netherlands on his own from Georgia. Specifically for visiting parties. He stays in hotels.
The judge wanted to know why he took a hypodermic needle with him to the dance party in The Hague. Levan V. had given several reasons for this. When he was arrested, he shouted that the syringe was for his diabetes. During the police interrogation, he said he used the needle to inject a painkiller into his rotten tooth. In court he exchanged his statement one more time: the syringe was used for taking hard drugs, for which he has already been convicted in Georgia. “I used crack and heroin with it. Once or twice. That was necessary for my toothache.” The syringe was “accidentally” still in his pocket when he visited the festival, but he certainly had not poked anyone else with it, Levan V. insisted. “I’ve never done anything bad to anyone in my life.”
His lawyer Pieter Hoogendam made a big point about whether it could be proven that Levan actually stabbed someone, as observed by three partygoers who made statements about this to the police. The 45-year-old victim, the woman at the bar in the techno tent, hadn’t noticed anything herself. “If you were stabbed in the back leg, the lady would have noticed the necessary,” said the lawyer.
Little red dot
After hearing from witnesses that she had been stung, the woman was taken to the festival’s first aid station. There the staff noticed a puncture hole and took a picture of it, which shows a small red dot. No medical report was made. “Actually, we have no more than a photo with a red dot on it,” said lawyer Hoogendam. “Is that prick that is there an injury or not? That’s what it’s about.”
According to the public prosecutor, the injury has been sufficiently proven, and the case shows how difficult it is to make a case of needle spiking plausible. “Dozens of reports have been received by the police, so far this has never led to prosecution of a suspect.” According to the officer, the fact that Levan V. could be prosecuted is due to the “three observant festival-goers” who noticed the incident. The officer demanded three months in prison and called on the judge to set a “standard for such bizarre behavior.”
The judge found that requirement still too light and added two months. “It is truly terrible what you have done. It should be clear to everyone that this sort of thing cannot and will not be tolerated. This just has to stop,” the judge said.
The victim will receive a thousand euros in damages. She is still waiting for the results of the blood test that should show whether she was infected by the shot, which contained traces of drugs.