Love Island 2021 star Sharon Gaffka has spoken out about her campaign to raise awareness of the “misconceptions” surrounding drink spiking after she accused her co-star Hugo Hammond of “making jokes” about the subject.
Sharon appeared on the Saving Grace podcast last week and revealed she’d “cut off” her former friend after he “made jokes about [her] getting spiked” during an argument after a night out – something Hugo denies.
The former beauty queen, who has been a victim of drink spiking herself, is now tackling “the lack of awareness and education” of the “abhorrent” crime.
During a recent appearance on Lorraine, Sharon explained, “It is [really scary] and I think one thing that I’m really trying to tackle is the lack of awareness and education around it. Because you know it is an abhorrent crime, it’s awful and the things that it can do to somebody physically, mentally and emotionally – especially if a crime takes place after, is horrific. But I think one thing that I’m really struggling to tackle is people’s misconceptions of it.
“People automatically assume it is the victim’s fault, there’s something that they must have done, or something they could have done differently, and I really want to tackle victim shaming. Even when secondary crime takes place then it goes very unreported because people are scared of the shame that they feel and I guarantee talking to you about this, when I leave, I’m going to see something on Twitter that says it was my fault or I’m doing this for attention.”
Hugo was forced to issue a statement last week in which he denied Sharon’s accusations that he’d made jokes about drink spiking. The former PE teacher wrote, “Spiking is not a topic I use within my jokes nor do I find it funny, it’s horrific to be honest.
“I wouldn’t joke about someone being spiked, it’s just not who I am, friend or not.”
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Hugo, who went public with girlfriend Molly Wilkins last month, also responded to Sharon’s claim of “inappropriate touching” as he continued, “The wild comment made around inappropriate touching is outrageous and simply false, to say something like this is seriously damaging and paints an unfair picture of me. You cannot just throw that sort of language around.”