Two drug users were found outside University College accommodation last Sunday afternoon.
Concerned students have immediately informed the police and the porters, but the two men fled the scene before the University Security services or the police arrived.
Needles and other drug paraphernalia were left lying around by the entrance.
At between 5 and 6pm last Sunday night, two men walked into Logic Lane and sat in the entrance of Durham Buildings, a student accommodation block. They proceeded to prepare and take the drugs in the entrance, as puzzled Univ students looked on.
Tim Fowler, the second year medic who called the police described how the men “sat preparing the drugs for around five minutes” before proceeding to inject themselves with what onlookers assumed to be heroin. At this point Fowler called the police for the first time. He commented “it is a relatively narrow entrance, people could have got past but nobody really wanted to.”
Fowler added “They were there for another thirty-five minutes and I phoned them [the police] again, but still nobody came.”
During this time, it is understood that the college porters were also contacted by several students. The porters then passed on the message to the University Security services, who are used for the protection of many of the University buildings. Representatives arrived approximately twenty minutes after the drug users had left, which was around an hour after the phone calls were made to the porters.
One student commented, “The police said it wasn’t an emergency, and gave us a non-emergency number to call…I normally feel very secure at Univ, especially as the Logic Lane gates are shut quite soon after it gets dark.”
The Thames Valley Police later arrived at the scene, but were unable to locate the men as they didn’t know what the men looked like.
Alice Heath, JCR President said, “Security is definitely not a general problem at Univ – we have keypads on every external and internal door, the gates to Logic Lane are locked at 7pm and our porters are extremely vigilant and trusted by everyone in college. I’ve never had anyone report any worries about security at Univ.”
