Accused drink spiker appears in court

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Four people who collapsed after drinking with a 29-year-old Swedish man in a Napier bar last December had been given samples of a liquid he claimed was a natural herbal "high", a court hearing was told in Napier today.

The four people who ingested the drug were all admitted to hospital and later discharged.

The man, who appeared at a disputed facts hearing in Napier District Court, was given continued interim name suppression by Judge Alistair Garland. The names of the four key witnesses have also been suppressed.

He is facing four charges of supplying a Class B controlled drug, GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid), to three men and a woman in the Cri Coffee House & Brasserie in Napier in the early hours of December 5. The drug is also known as GBL, fantasy, ecstasy or liquid euphoria.

One witness said the accused was introduced to a group of his friends at the bar the night before and was drinking at the bar with them. At one stage he saw the accused pouring what appeared to be lime cordial from a bottle into their glasses.

He asked what the liquid was and the accused said it contained natural ingredients which would give "a good high".

He declined to taste the liquid but later in the evening did sample some in his own drink in the garden bar. Initially he felt no effects but after some recollection of being on the dance floor, he woke up in his room. There was "a huge gap" in his memory of that latter part of the evening.

A second witness said the accused had offered her group "something herbal" and put a small amount in their drinks. After drinking with her friends during the evening, she recalled being on the dance floor, then waking up in an ambulance.

One man in the group said the accused had made some explicit sexual suggestions to him early in the evening at the bar before asking where he could obtain some crystal methamphetamine. The accused then allegedly said he had some "liquid euphoria" which he poured from a nail-polish remover bottle into the victim's drink.

Later in the evening some more was put into his drink but he tipped it out. He remembered being on the dance floor at one stage then waking up in hospital.

Constable Dean Lyell said he went to the bar after being told several people had collapsed after consuming the drug fantasy. He was told a third male had collapsed in the toilets and a fourth was unconscious on a bed upstairs.

When the accused was spoken to at a backpackers, he denied giving drugs to the four victims in the bar. No drugs were found in his possession.

The nail-polish remover bottle was found by a bouncer in one of the victim's jacket pocket. It was subsequently analysed by the DSR and found to contain the Class B drug GBL, also known as GBH or fantasy.

Judge Garland indicated he would make an oral decision on the hearing tomorrow.

- NZPA