Perth locals have reportedly abandoned Rapture nightclub following the owner’s gross comments about an alleged drink spiking incident.
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The viral controversy appears to have significantly damaged the club’s reputation as the once popular hotspot was a ghost town over the weekend.
Daily Mail reports that a mere 15 people attended the club on Friday night which is usually a busy evening for them.
Two women who are regulars at the venue told the The West Australian that Friday night was the quietest they’d ever seen it.
“It’s very quiet, we’ve never seen it this quiet. But that’s the owner’s fault,” one said.
Meanwhile around 20 people protesting the owner’s remarks and three men believed to be undercover police were seen congregating outside the venue.
The protest was planned via the Facebook event ‘Protest At The Rapture Nightclub’.
“Obviously we’ve all seen how (Mr Scott) completely ignored and even ridiculed a patron who claimed her drink was spiked at his venue,” the event organiser wrote.
“It is important that we as a community try and work together to stop the Rapture Nightclub which holds disgusting values from running.”
“If we all work together and hold protest we can change the way the nightclub is running.”
Neil Scott, who has been running clubs for 38 years, welcomed the protest, claiming he’d like to see the faces of the people who have been abusing him.
“It will be good to see the faces of the up to now, anonymous haters hiding behind tag names,” Scott told Daily Mail. “Then there are a lot of messages of support and some telling me that Shantel was a brat in school.”
Two other women told the publication that they refused to boycott the club because they’ve “always been treated really well” at Rapture.
“We know the security guards. Yeah, the owner could’ve responded better to the girl’s claims but in the end, he did review the footage,” one of them said.
Two others labelled the drink spiking claims as “just a bunch of bullshit” but agreed that the owner’s response was “disgusting.”
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Last week, 19-year-old Shantel Smith shared a Messenger exchange with the nightclub where she informs them that her drink was spiked during a night at their establishment.
The social media manager of the club responded by asking if she’s “worth someone spiking your drink.”
Despite the post going viral with punters voicing their fury at the Perth hotspot, Scott refused to back down.
He later reiterated his comments to The West Australian – particularly the part where he questions why anyone would spike Shantel’s drink.
“She’s not a particularly attractive girl. It’s just implausible to imagine that she had her drink spiked, it just doesn’t sort of add up. She’s just a very plain Jane type of girl. I can’t understand why anybody would be possessed by her.”
He’s also taken his fucked up comments onto Facebook, posting CCTV footage with the caption “The large girl with the white top, the short black skirt and the black and white shoes is Shantel Smith, the girl who claimed to have had her drink spiked.”
Shantel spoke to Nine News after her Instagram post went viral, explaining that she woke up “in a toilet stall. There was vomit everywhere and I was foaming at the mouth.”
She also slammed Rapture again, saying “I just couldn’t believe I was being blamed for something that happened to me without my knowledge.”
