{"id":63815,"date":"2024-05-01T11:31:30","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T10:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/?p=63815"},"modified":"2024-05-03T09:37:38","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T08:37:38","slug":"father-set-up-spiking-charity-after-his-sons-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/05\/01\/father-set-up-spiking-charity-after-his-sons-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents set up spiking charity after their son’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The parents of a student who was killed by drink spiking are campaigning to modernise old-fashioned laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Mackie was 18 years old when he tragically died in November 2017 after his non-alcoholic drink was spiked with the equivalent of five ecstasy tablets.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His parents, Colin and Mandy Mackie, who launched the charity Spike Aware UK<\/a>, after their son\u2019s death, said: \u201cThere was no one there for us to turn to or talk to. There was nothing, we were just left with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg was in his first year of a film and television production course at Edinburgh College when he was spiked in his student accommodation. His flatmates put him to bed assuming he was drunk, but later that night he died from the drugs that he had unknowingly taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor Greg, going to university was an adventure,\u201d said Colin, from Moffatt, Dumfriesshire. \u201cIt was about the new friends he was going to make, but unfortunately they weren\u2019t as friendly as he thought they were going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police initially thought Greg had taken the ecstasy tablets himself, but his parents knew their son would never knowingly take drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg\u2019s girlfriend at the time confirmed this was the case and explained he had been offered drugs at parties before and turned them down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Greg Mackie. Picture courtesy of Colin Mackie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The university student competed nationally for the Castleford Castles junior speedway team as well as boxing and cross-country running, meaning he had regular drug testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colin claims if his flatmates had called an ambulance or taken Greg to A&E, he could have got the treatment he needed. Despite the police believing that he was drunk at the time, a toxicology report after his death found no traces of alcohol in his blood at his time of death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over six years have passed since Greg died and still no one has been charged for his death. Colin believes the case was dropped due to a lack of evidence. Scotland\u2019s criminal law requires at least \u201ctwo sources of reliable and credible evidence to corroborate that an offence was committed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg had planned to make an anti-drugs film as part of his university course. He also appeared as an extra in the 2018 film Outlaw King, and was due to take a role as an extra in Outlander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colin, who believed his son was heading towards a career in acting, said: \u201cWe\u2019ll never know now where he would have gone or what he would have ended up doing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg\u2019s story is not what is largely believed to be a stereotypical victim. He was male and was not spiked in a club or bar, instead in his own student accommodation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colin said: \u201cIf he\u2019d been in a nightclub or that kind of environment, he\u2019d be a bit more alert.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After his son\u2019s death, Colin and his wife, Mandy, set up Spike Aware UK to help victims receive the support they need, as well as campaign for changes in the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The charity offers advice for victims who feel they cannot go to the police, or for those who have been and felt the police did not do a good enough job handling their case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victims of spiking can get support from their website<\/a> or by calling 07368 191124.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A dad is campaigning to modernise old-fashioned drink spiking laws after his son was killed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":64872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1803],"tags":[1961,1960,1880,1227],"class_list":["post-63815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campaigns-drink-spiking","tag-edinburgh","tag-spike-aware","tag-spiking","tag-student"],"yoast_head":"\nParents set up spiking charity after their son's death - Sheffield Wire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/05\/01\/father-set-up-spiking-charity-after-his-sons-death\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Parents set up spiking charity after their son's death - 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