Date-rape drug attacker jailed

Published on Tuesday 15 June 2004 03:36

A MAN who repeatedly had sex with a woman after giving her a date-rape drug at a party was jailed for five years yesterday.

David Symon, 32, maintained his innocence as he was led to the cells at the High Court in Edinburgh. His case is believed to be the first successful rape prosecution in Scotland involving the drug, GHB.

The victim, a 21-year-old mother, had described in evidence how she took a swig from a bottle offered to her by Symon, and felt her head was going to explode.

Symon, of Pentland Terrace, High Valleyfield, Fife, was told by the judge, Roger Craik, QC, the offence was an extremely serious matter, and aggravated by the use of the drug.

"It was not suggested by anyone, not even the woman herself, that it was secreted in drink or anything of that sort. But the jury seems to have accepted that she did not realise what it was she was being given to drink. After the drug took effect, you took advantage of that situation and repeatedly had intercourse with her either when she was unconscious or incapable of resistance," added Mr Craik.

During last month’s trial, the court heard that the woman had been drinking wine with her sister while they got ready for a night out in Dunfermline, Fife, on 31 May last year. At a nightclub, she drank a mixture of vodka and Irn-Bru, and although she felt the effects, she insisted she still knew what she was doing.

In the early hours, the woman went in a taxi with Symon, a stranger, and one or two other men, thinking she was going to a party "for more drinks and a laugh". She said she was sitting on a settee beside Symon when he gave her a bottle and she took a drink.

"It was like my head would explode and I couldn’t see in front of me," the woman said.

She heard someone shout: "What did you give her that for? It’s GBH."

The court was told that the abbreviation of the drug, gammahydroxybutyrate, was GHB, but was commonly dubbed GBH after the English legal charge of grievous bodily harm. It was also called "liquid ecstasy".

The drug is not licensed for medical use in Britain, but in some countries, such as Italy and the United States, it is used by doctors and dentists as an anaesthetic. On the club scene in Britain, it has a reputation for lowering sexual inhibitions.

The woman said her next memory was of being naked on the floor, and Symon was on top of her. Later, he drove her home and told her: "That was some adventure." She thought she had been drugged, and the police were called.

When Symon was interviewed by detectives, he insisted the woman had been a willing partner in a night of wild sex.