Hard Rock Hotel Room by Andrew Ta at Flickr

It was 2012 and a young woman – we’ll call her Marie – was out with friends in an Essex nightclub. Her friends saw her kissing a young man – we’ll call him Danny – before they lost track of her.

The next morning Marie woke to find herself naked in a hotel bed with Danny, whom she did not recognise.

She could not recollect how she came to be there. She drifted in and out of sleep, becoming gradually aware that she was sore and must have recently had sex.

She got up to leave. As she was dressing another four men, whom she did not recognise either, came into the room.

Marie left the hotel in a rush and spoke to a friend, who persuaded her to call 999.

She told Essex police she had no recollection of the events of that night or of having sex with Danny and that she did not want to get him into trouble. But she said she was worried that she had been ‘given something’ as she had not had a lot to drink and could not understand her lack of memory.

Danny and his friends, who had been in the hotel room next door, were arrested. After giving evidence that he had consensual sex with Marie at least twice that morning, Danny was released without charge, as were his friends.

Marie’s blood and urine were analysed for ‘date-rape’ drugs but the results were inconclusive. So much time had elapsed before the tests were done that any traces were likely to have disappeared from her system.

‘I would never leave my friends either. I didn’t drink anything more than I would normally. I had eaten. I just don’t understand what happened.’

Woman accused of false rape claim

The police then arrested Marie – who had never been in trouble with the police before – and charged her with perverting the course of justice by making a false allegation of rape.

The CPS later said she had come up with a ‘sophisticated plan’ to subtly imply that she had been raped in order to ‘free herself of the embarrassment’ of having had a one-night stand.

It was ‘simply unbelievable’, prosecutors argued, that she could have woken up in bed next to a strange man with no recollection of the night before, having apparently had consensual sex with him and then forgotten about that as well.

This was despite the fact that partial memory loss is entirely consistent with the effects of ‘date-rape’ drugs.

The case was thrown out by a Crown Court judge. The CPS then took the case to the Court of Appeal.

In a ruling made in December 2013 the Appeal Court supported the previous judge’s decision. However the appeal judges agreed that Marie should not have dialled 999, which it said was for reporting ‘significant crime’.

Related story: ‘Type of underwear’ influenced CPS decision to drop rape case

The case has worrying implications, says the campaigning organisation Women Against Rape, which warns that the decision to prosecute the woman could deter victims of drug-assisted rape from reporting their experiences to police.

Earlier this year the High Court told the Metropolitan Police to compensate the victims of serial rapist John Worboys, a black cab driver who fed women passengers spiked drinks before raping them.

The Met’s policy on ‘drug facilitated sexual assault’ warned that special procedures were needed when dealing with these victims, as they tend to have little or no recollection of events, may have slipped in and out of consciousness, and have ‘given the impression of consent’.

In the Worboys case the Met failed to follow this policy and detectives dropped the women’s reports without thorough investigation because officers did not consider their testimony to be credible. One victim was seen on CCTV apparently embracing Worboys.

Following Worboys’s conviction, the Met advises anyone concerned they may have been raped but cannot remember what happened to contact police.

Metropolitan Police Policy on Drug Facilitated Sexual Assault If a victim has been given a ‘drug rape’ drug they will probably be in a state of confusion. Depending on the dose and the time elapsed since the administering of the drug, the victim may have a good recollection of what has happened to him/her or they may have no recollection at all. It may be purely on physical evidence that they think they have been attacked. It should also be remembered that if the victim is still suffering the effects of the drug, when they report the offence, it might be affecting their behaviour. The victim will often reflect upon what has happened and question whether it was their fault and whether they may have been giving the impression of consent. It is of the utmost importance that the victim be treated as a victim of rape, irrespective of how confused their account may be and irrespective of any possible evidence of consent…. ‘Officers must be aware that victims can experience a loss of memory of events after a drug has been taken … a person given a drug may also be rendered unconscious, may remain conscious but with little or no recollection of events or may slip in and out of consciousness…

Marie was prosecuted on the basis that consensual sex had taken place in the morning – Danny’s friends in the next door room had heard sounds consistent with that having happened. The police maintained she was lying when she said she had no recollection of this.