Exeter nightclub ‘must do more’ to keep uni freshers safe

The owners of a nightclub which has become an Exeter ‘institution’ over the last 50 years have been urged to do more to protect new university students.

The call came during a city council licensing committee meeting at which the club’s licence was at stake. The meeting lasted more than six hours.
The three members of the committee will publish a decision within five working days over the future of Timepiece’s licence. Options range from taking no action at all to revoking the licence altogether.
They were called on to review it after an incident at the city centre club in which a teenage girl collapsed after an alleged ‘spiking’ incident during Freshers’ Week in September.
They heard claims that the student could have died in the incident.
After watching CCTV footage which showed the girl, who has now recovered, collapsing, barrister David Dadds said: “This premises has let this girl down. A vulnerable person has been failed.”
Timepiece, however, disputed the claims and said some of the statements given by witnesses were not true. 
Mr Dadds, acting on behalf of the student and her family, called for the review, saying the club had failed to protect and aid a vulnerable young person who became unwell on the premises.
He said he did want one of the city’s most popular nightspots and a favourite haunt of university students to close. But, he said, what had happened was ‘unacceptable’.
“We just want to make sure that when people go to Timepiece, they get home again safe and sound,” he told the meeting.
He called for conditions to be placed on the club’s licence including better training in dealing with vulnerable patrons and more welfare and door staff during Freshers’ Week and other ‘high-risk’ periods such as Christmas.
He also said the club should not sell ‘over-strength’ alcohol during the first week of the university year, after hearing how a 75% rum drink called Tiki Fire was among the drinks the student had on the night she collapsed.
The club says it no longer sells the drink.
Timepiece first opened in 1975 and has had the same manager for the last 32 years.
“It’s an institution in Exeter,” said Christopher Rees-Gay, on behalf of the club. “It has never had its licence reviewed, or any enforcement action.”
Committee members saw CCTV and body-camera footage showing the young girl entering the club. A quarter of an hour later, after an alleged drink ‘spiking’, she was being helped back down the stairs by friends.
She collapsed and fell backwards onto the metal stairs before being lifted back to her feet and helped out of Timepiece into the street outside. She collapsed around the corner – out of sight of door staff.
“We could have been looking at a death here,” said Mr Dadds
Mr Dadds said door staff seemed ‘indifferent’ to the student’s welfare, and failed to ensure she got home safely. A taxi was called, but drove past without picking up the girl and her friends.
Eventually an ambulance was called by the girl’s friends and she was able to walk into it to be taken to hospital.
“Door staff had the opportunity to intervene and do the right thing,” said Mr Dadds.
Mr Rees-Gay said door staff had done what they could to help, and the approach of one had been ‘almost motherly’. He said there had been ‘overkill’ in some descriptions of the events on the night.
“The door staff were compassionate,” he said.
However, it emerged during the hearing that Timepiece did not have the correct licence in place for its self-managed door staff at the time of the incident, a situation the club corrected as soon as it was made aware.
Rob Skinner, the premises licence holder, said he and his staff had found the licence review ‘stressful and overwhelming’.
“I look on our customers as somebody’s daughters and somebody’s sons to be looked after,” he added. “I take it very seriously and we do the best we can, sometimes under very difficult circumstances.”
He said three members of staff had left as a result of the allegations made. 
Police licensing sergeant David Flynn said he had no concerns about the management of the venue. The student had suffered a ‘minor fall’ and had been attended to quickly by friends and door staff.
Summing up, Mr Dadds said: “I don’t agree that Timepiece acted responsibly on that night. They say they do their best in difficult circumstances, but they must do better.”
In his closing remarks, Mr Rees-Gay said allegations had been made in public ‘without a shred of evidence’, and added: “We say the allegations made about the care and welfare of the customer are totally unfounded.”