A mother has told Sky News she felt “absolutely destroyed” after seeing her daughter unable to speak or walk and with her eyes rolling after her drink was apparently spiked in an Essex nightclub.
Millie Taplin, 18, was taken to hospital on Saturday night after she became unwell during a night out at Moos Moos in Southend.
In an interview with Sky News the teenager and her mother Claire explained why they believe a substance was put in Millie’s drink.
Millie told Sky’s Ashna Hurynag that she started to feel hot and sick after taking a few sips of a drink that had been bought for her and told her friends she needed some fresh air.
Shortly after going outside she said she was sick and then her vision started to go blurry. Millie told her sister and friends that she thought she needed to go to hospital.
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“I’ve never felt like that in my whole life,” she said.
“I couldn’t really walk with they had to get a wheelchair for me, it was like I was trying to move my legs but they weren’t moving.”
In a video Claire Taplin recorded of her daughter in her hospital bed, Millie can be seen with her jaw locked and fingers bent into claws.
Claire Taplin said “The last text message I sent was don’t put your drink down, you know, be careful what you drink, but I didn’t even consider someone buying them a drink.”
Essex Police said it is investigating the incident.
Millie left hospital on Sunday and has recovered but Ms Taplin said she feels “absolutely destroyed by it”.
“I feel anxious every time she leaves the house says, I just feel generally unwell,” she told Sky News.
“I went into work Monday, broke down and I had to come home, I just couldn’t focus.
“Mentally I don’t know if that’s gonna affect her. I think it affected me way more than her. But me because of understanding of what they’ve done to her,” she said.
A spokesperson for Moo Moo said: “We urge all customers to be present when their drink is ordered and that they do not leave it unattended.
“The alleged drink spiked appears to have been accepted from a person known to the lady affected and whilst it was not reported to us at the time, we are assisting the police who are dealing with the matter.”
In a statement Essex Police said: “We are investigating after we received a report of a woman having a drink spiked at a nightclub in Southend.
“It is reported that an 18-year-old woman had taken ill outside a venue in Warrior Square. The report was made to us at 3.30am on Saturday 1 August.”
“The woman was taken to hospital for assessment. No arrests have been made and our enquiries are ongoing.”