AN OTLEY bar is at the centre of a row after a complaint about a drink called ‘Rohypnol.’

The Rookery Bar was contacted by police after a customer complained the drink - with the same name as a “rape drug” - was listed on the menu.

The bar, which insists it stopped selling the drink 18 months ago, tweeted:”We’ve just had a phone call from @WYP_LeedsNW on behalf of our MP @alexsobel because somebody was offended by the name of a drink. LET THAT SINK IN ...The Police and our MP investigating “someone being offended.”

Mr Sobel pointed out the drink was named Rohypnol - a drug used to rape countless women.

The Leeds North West MP later posted on Otley Our Town, saying: “We were contacted last week by a constituent who had an incident at the Rookery Bar over a drink named ‘Rohypnol’.

“Whilst many on this thread feel this issue was dealt with 18 months ago, we were advised the menus with the drink displayed as available for sale were still visible in early August.We were advised that when the issue was raised the bar did not show any understanding or empathy.

“We also have a Facebook post on the Rookery’s page raising this issue with the bar in October 2019 with the name of the drink displayed. I believe that this post has now been removed.

“As an MP, my duty is to signpost constituent concerns to the agencies responsible for dealing with them, in this case the Licensing department at Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Police. We passed on the complaint to them for them to investigate and ask that the drink ‘Rohypnol’ would at no time be displayed on the menu.

“As far as we were concerned this was matter was dealt with after the bar had been contacted by Licensing. We received a response from Licensing on the afternoon of Friday 14th stating that the bar had agreed to remove the drink. Neither I nor the agencies involved sought to publicise this or make public comment. However, the bar chose to take to social media on Friday evening and make this a freedom of speech issue, without mentioning the name of the drink.”

He stressed: “We must remember in all of this, the victims who understand only too well the dangers of Rohypnol. Many of those victims have contacted me in the past couple of days.”

The bar said on Facebook: “We removed the drink from sale more than 18 months ago, understanding how its name may be misconstrued and cause offence. We didn’t create or name the drink and would never intentionally want to upset our customers, local community or make light of a very serious issue. We apologise to anyone who has been negatively affected.We have explained the actions we took 18 months ago to both Leeds Licensing and West Yorkshire Police who were satisfied with our response.

“We haven’t been contacted by Alex Sobel or any customers but openly welcome the chance to directly discuss any further issues.”