Birmingham city council has revoked the licence of club where teenagers Michael Trueman and Dylan Booth both took drugs that later killed them

Birmingham superclub Rainbow Venues is set to close after its licence was revoked “to protect public safety”, following the recent drug-related death of a 19-year-old on the premises.

Student Michael Trueman attended a Halloween event at the club on 29 October, where he took MDMA. After becoming disorientated he was taken to hospital, where he died the following day. In 2015, 18-year-old Dylan Booth also died after taking ecstasy at the club.

Abdul Rohomon, a spokesperson for West Midlands police, argued to the city council: “There are around 3,000 licensed premises in Birmingham and this is the only venue which has suffered drug-related deaths. The most stringent measures are in place, yet drugs are still being consumed inside the venue.”

He also presented evidence from Snapchat that a 15-year-old had been allowed entry, which was denied by Matthew Phipps, a lawyer for the venue. Phipps added that despite “stringent measures” such as CCTV, sniffer dogs and random searches, “some customers do use the most extreme measures to smuggle drugs including putting pills in car keys and also intimate places in their body. We simply can’t guarantee that no drugs will ever get through.” The venue has 21 days to appeal the decision.

The case somewhat echoes that of London superclub Fabric, which was temporarily closed following the drug-related deaths of two teenagers in the summer of 2016. Following an appeal to Islington council and widespread protests in the dance music community, it reopened in January after a five month closure with a raft of measures aimed to reduce drug-taking in the club, including ID scanners, CCTV monitoring and lifetime bans for anyone caught with drugs.