A Perth nightclub owner has come under fire for his response to a teenage girl's claim that her drink was drugged, asking if she was "worth" someone spiking her drink.
19-year-old Shantel Smith contacted Rapture Nightclub after she claimed her drink was spiked in the venue on Saturday and suggested that they should increase security for clubbers.
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She wrote: "I believe my drink was actually spiked on Saturday, I had only had 2 or 3 drinks before I came in so I definitely wasn't drunk, bought 1 drink from the bar and was then unconscious for the next 2.5 hours, vomiting and experiencing other common symptoms of a date rape drug."
The teen also claimed the same thing had happened to two other people she knew on previous occasions.
Despite the measured private message, which has been shared on social media, club owner Neil Temple Scott refused to apologies and instead ridiculed the young woman, demanding proof.
In a screenshot of a private message, which has since gone viral, he asked: "What proof do you have of your drink being spiked. Why would anyone want to spike your drink?"
"Did you attend a hospital and have your stomach pumped for evidence? Is this something you and your friends experience regularly? Would you like a crowd controller to hold your drink the next time you attend a nightclub?
"Do you think ten crowd controllers would be able to stop you having your drink spiked? Are you worth someone trying to spike your drink?
"We think this is a beat up and we believe that no one would be stupid enough to waste their drugs on spiking anyone's drink."
The gob-smacking response has rightly garnered much backlash and has many in the Australian city calling on the club to be shut down.
So far, a change.org petition, which calls for the nightclub to be shut down, has attracted over 14,000 signatures.
Since his initial response to the teen, Mr Scott said on ABC Perth Radio on Monday that he could have worded his response better but continued to slam Shantel's claims.
"We had 14 staff on duty, at no time did any of the staff hear about a drink being spiked," he said. "She attended the nightclub for two hours and 55 minutes, she arrived at 10.58pm...and then she came out at 2.53am.
"There was no chance that she had a drink spiked, it was just an 18-year-old girl being silly."
Insisting that his response was "tongue-in-cheek", Neil added: "She stood outside the nightclub for another eight minutes and jollied around with her friends, dancing in front of the nightclub, enjoying herself, and then walked off. "
"It was just absolute rubbish that she'd had her drink spiked, there was no chance."
Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Shantel Smith