More than a third of last year's sexual assaults involved drugging, hospital says

The Sexual Assault Care Centre at the Sault Area Hospital says that 25 of 68 reported sexual assaults last year were drug-facilitated.

“Drug-facilitated sexual assault isn’t a new problem, and it’s been pretty consistent that it’s been one-third of our yearly cases have involved some sort of drug-facilitated component,” says Christine Simpson with the Sexual Assault Care Centre.  

That statistic follows last week’s news of three reported sexual assaults in the ‘central downtown area’ in which three women were reportedly drugged prior to being sexually assaulted.

In at least one of the assaults, the offender was not known to the victim.

“We do need to be vigilant about promoting just the very basic concepts of consent, respect and equality,” Simpson said. “We all deserve to be safe and free from violence.”

The centre, which offers a number of services for victims of sexual assault, sees roughly one ‘acute sexual assault’ case per week.

Simpson says that drug-facilitated sexual assault isn’t a new problem in the city, and that it’s been a fairly common occurrence since the Sexual Assault Care Centre first opened its doors in the 1990s.

It’s also a vastly underreported crime, and what is reported is probably "only the tip of the iceberg," says Simpson.

“People are worried to come in and receive healthcare because they’re worried the police have to be involved, and they don’t,” Simpson said during a telephone interview with SooToday. “We certainly try to promote choice.”

While the centre has seen positive tests for cocaine, MDMA and opiates from sexual assault victims, Simpson says that the most common substance, by far, is alcohol.

“It’s not necessarily the GHBs, the ketamines, the rohypnol,” said Simpson. “Drug-facilitated assault is any substance that can cause any sort of sedation, reduced inhibition, memory loss.”

The Sexual Assault Care Centre offers the following services:

• Documentation of the history of the assault
• Evidence collection
• Storage of evidence (for up to 6 months)
• Photographs of injuries
• Emergency contraception
• STI testing
• Preventative treatment and safety planning
• Trauma therapy
• Counseling

“We have very strong linkages within our community, and it really is a community effort,” Simpson said.  

Sault Ste. Marie Police Service declined comment on the investigation into last week’s assaults.

The suspect was described as a middle aged Caucasian male with an average build. The male was between 5-foot-8 and 6-feet tall with short brown hair, according to police.