Love Island star Sharon Gaffka says James Cleverly’s spiking joke ‘makes victims feel smaller’

Sharon Gaffka recalls her own experience of being spiked and says she finds it hard to put into words how angry she felt about James Cleverly’s joke

Love Island star Sharon Gaffka says she felt “angry and upset” after hearing the Home Secretary had joked about using a date rape drug on his own wife.

Gaffka, who was a victim of drink spiking after the first lockdown, said James Cleverly’s joke “makes victims feel smaller”.

She said: “Having to carry the guilt of being spiked for such a long period of time before I spoke about it was really difficult.

“And then also knowing what could’ve happened to me, even more difficult to even think about.

“And for someone to just sit there and make jokes about it, and make jokes about it towards his own wife, I find it really hard to put into words…

“I felt really angry and upset when I heard these comments. And I would be angry and upset if any of my friends made them, let alone somebody I was in a long term relationship with.”

Home Secretary Mr Cleverly has since apologised for making the “ironic joke” about spiking his wife’s drink with a date rape drug.

Speaking to female guests at a Downing Street reception, Mr Cleverly said “a little bit of Rohypnol in her drink every night” was “not really illegal if it’s only a little bit”, the Sunday Mirror reported.

His remarks came just hours after his Home Office announced plans to crack down on spiking.

Mr Cleverly also laughed that the secret to a long marriage was ensuring your spouse was “someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there”.

Allies of Mr Cleverly said his comments were made in a private setting, but he recognises they were inappropriate and has apologised.

Home Secretary and Essex Conservative MP James Cleverly. Credit: PA

Ms Gaffka was spiked when she went for lunch with friends on the first day she was allowed out after the first lockdown.

She said: “I remember telling my friends that I was very unwell. I locked myself in a toilet cubicle and the moment I regained consciousness, I was in an A&E ward having drips fitted to me, blood tests.”

She continued: “I was covered in vomit, blood. I had wet myself because you lose control of the lower parts of your body.

“And to take that sense of security away from somebody, to render them unconscious, and for them to not know what’s happened to them, or knowing now what could’ve happened to me, had my friends not been vigilant…”

Ms Gaffka now campaigns against violence on women and girls.

She said she believes “anyone that makes these jokes lacks understanding or compassion for any women, let alone the women in his own life”.

She also pointed out: “When it comes to bystander behaviour, if people makes those comments because they feel comfortable to make those comments, it contributes to a longer issue of violence against women and girls.

“The fact that he feels like he’s in a safe position to make that joke in the first place, really undermines everything we’re trying to do.”

The government has been trying to tackle drink spiking. Credit: ITV Meridian

Mr Cleverly has previously described tackling violence against women and girls as a “personal priority” and called spiking a “perverse” crime.

A spokesman for the Home Secretary said: “In what was always understood as a private conversation, James, the Home Secretary, tackling spiking made what was clearly meant to be an ironic joke – for which he apologises.”

Ministers have pledged to modernise the language used in legislation to make clear spiking is a crime and announced a series of other measures as part of a crackdown.

But they stopped short of making spiking – when someone puts drugs into another’s drink or directly into their body without their knowledge or consent – a specific offence.

Between May 2022 and April 2023, there were 6,732 reports of spiking in England and Wales – including 957 reported incidents of needle spiking.

On average police receive 561 reports of spiking a month, with the majority being made by women typically after incidents in or near bars and nightclubs, according to a Home Office report.

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