ANITA Grinham's world collapsed around her after her drink was spiked on a night out and she was raped in her own home.

ANITA Grinham's world collapsed around her after her drink was spiked on a night out and she was raped in her own home.

The bubbly single mother lost her beauty salon business and her self-confidence, hacking back and dyeing her long blonde hair to change her appearance and becoming too scared to leave the house.

But today she is looking to the future in a bid to gain something positive from her ordeal by stopping others falling victim to the same fate.

The 34-year-old has set up a business to supply a product for people to test if their drinks have been tampered with and is now trying to persuade pubs and clubs to stock the device.

Tearfully reliving her ordeal, Miss Grinham, who now lives in Tattingstone, said she had been out in Ipswich in July last year when she felt something was seriously wrong when she started to feel woozy and disorientated after her second glass of wine.

She said: “There was this man I knew there who had been keeping an eye on my drink; he was someone who always flirted with me and I always took it with a pinch of salt.

“He was obviously the one who spiked my drink but I was not aware at the time and he became this 'knight in shining armour' to take me home. One minute I was okay and then it was black.”

She said the next thing she remembered was being in her bedroom at her home in Shotley with the man who had offered to take her home on top of her. Miss Grinham said she felt like her body was made of lead and she was unable to move.

Miss Grinham did not say anything for several weeks as she feared no-one would believe her but eventually went to the police when she started receiving threatening text message from the man.

Police made an arrest but then she was told by police that the Crown Prosecution Service could not take the case to court because of a lack of forensic evidence, meaning it would be one person's word against another's in front of a jury.

Miss Grinham saw a rape therapist to help with getting through the emotional side of the experience but the injustice of her attacker remaining at large spurred her on to come up with an idea to help others from going through the same experience.

She said: “It had destroyed my life. I could have let it carry on but I said it was not right. This guy is still walking around and gets away with it.

“It takes a lot of courage for someone to come forward and to hear nothing would be done was hard to accept. I thought I had to make sure no-one ever gets in that situation again.”

n. Have you ever been in this situation? What do you think of Miss Grinham's business idea? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or email eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk

Along with her friend, Louise Barker, 34 of Boxford, Miss Grinham has researched date rape and set up a business to help people being attacked by detecting early-on if their drink has been spiked.

The company Laced Entrapment, which is being launched this month in Ipswich, will supply pubs, clubs, hotels, brasseries and even taxis with the kits to sell to customers.

They will then be able to carry out a spot-check on their drink or test their urine in the toilet if they think they have been spiked.

So far 19 premises in Ipswich have signed up to sell the date-rape testing kits and will display the logo in their windows. There are also plans for a confidential 24-hour hotline and to roll the scheme out nationwide.

“I have to make a difference and prevent people going through what I did,” said Miss Grinham.

N. To find out more about Miss Grinham's business visit the website www.lacedentrapment.vpweb.co.uk or call 07974 270322.