A girls’ holiday to Malta turned into a nightmare after three friends were individually assaulted in three separate incidents over the course of a week. The disturbed women told The Malta Independent on Sunday how the experience had caused them “distress” and left them “fearful for their safety and well-being.”
The three British women were sexually assaulted in areas frequented by tourists: a lido in Bugibba, St George’s Bay, and a club in Paceville.
The first and arguably most shocking incident took place in broad daylight at around 11am when one of the women was sunbathing at St George’s Bay.
Describing the incident as a “complete violation”, 20-year-old Sarah* said that she had simply been relaxing on the beach reading a book, when a man in his early thirties approached her.
“I saw a shadow cast over me and when I looked up I saw a man with a beard peering down at me. He then started saying a few things like ‘hey beautiful’ and ‘hey baby’. I could tell he was Italian from his accent, and before I knew it, he had jumped on me, his whole body on mine and his face up against mine.”
At that point the man tried to kiss her and pinned her arms down into the sand as he began simulating the act of sexual intercourse while on top of her.
“I was literally screaming for him to get off me and he was still trying to stick his tongue down my throat. Thank God my friends started pulling him off me. When they eventually got him off me, he started laughing. I was in my bikini and he was in shorts so feeling his bare skin on mine was horrifying. I have never felt so violated and abused in my life.”
The second incident occurred at a pool area in Bugibba, where boozy pool parties are organised on a weekly basis. What was supposed to be a fun night, however, took a turn for the worse when another of the women in the group was also assaulted.
The incident happened at around 11pm close to the DJ stand, where many party-goers were dancing. The young woman in question, Jessica*, was drinking alcohol but stressed that “although I had been drinking, I was not drunk; I had only had two or three drinks throughout the night.”
Dancing at the edge of the crowd, Jessica began chatting to some Italian men, who were roughly in their mid-twenties. “He was quite tall, at least six feet and Mediterranean looking. I heard him and his friends speaking Italian. I started chatting with them; you know just the usual conversation. Where are you from? What have you got up to in Malta?”
Jessica explained how one of the men in the group approached her and demanded that she kiss him. Having replied with an immediate ‘No’, the man continued to implore her to do so.
“He kept begging me to kiss him and I kept telling him I have a boyfriend, I even showed him a picture of me and my boyfriend. But he said I wouldn’t have come on holiday here and to this party if I really had a boyfriend.”
At that, Jessica turned away and the man grabbed her arm and asked for a hug instead. “At this point, I didn’t realise what he was like, so I didn’t think much of it. So I hugged him. But a hug clearly meant something else to him. As I hugged him he pinned me up against the wall and stuck his tongue down my throat while his hands prevented me from getting free.”
After being met with such forceful action, she immediately began to push him away and struggled to break free of his grip. “I began trying to push him away and his hands were going everywhere. He was obviously stronger than me, so I couldn’t get free.” However, it was not long till other bystanders intervened and helped the young woman out.
“My friends pushed him off me and started shouting at him to stay away and to not come near us. We left immediately after that and grabbed a taxi. I cried throughout the taxi ride, ridden with guilt that I had somehow done something to allow this to happen. I called my boyfriend sobbing my eyes out, recounting what had happened.”
The final incident occurred in Paceville, at a nightclub at around 1am, when Olivia* was groped by a stranger.
She explains: “We were in the club dancing and yes of course we were drinking but we were only just dancing between us girls and we were having such a good time,” Olivia recalls. “I could see this guy staring at us, but to be honest in places like Paceville the men are like vultures and everywhere you go they stare. This man appeared to have been of Arabic origin and around 30 years old, I believe. I just ignored him and kept on dancing.
“All of sudden I could feel someone behind me, pushing himself on me from behind, breathing down my neck and a hand going down my skirt. I jumped and screamed so hard and automatically started jerking and pushing him away. It was the same man I had seen staring at us and thankfully my friends were around to push him away and scare him off. This was now the third occasion that me or my friends had been groped or violated by some random stranger while here on holiday in Malta.”
Sarah filed a police report but the other girls did not. When asked why she hadn’t filed a report herself, Jessica replied: “Now that I think about it, I should have, yet I honestly feel that in these situations nothing ever comes out of it.”
“Yes, I agree with Jessica. What’s really going to come out of it? This happens to women a lot more often than we realise and a report to the police will just sit on their desk and that’s it,” said Olivia.
“We have never experienced anything like it before. All three incidents were sexual assault because they were all non-consensual sexual touching,” the Sarah said.
She adds, “I can honestly say that this has left me with a feeling I can’t quite describe. To a certain extent, I’m full of anger that there are certain men out there who still believe they have the right to touch a woman whenever and wherever they want. A part of me feels so violated and like something has been taken away from me.”
Sexual assault is a crime. A total of 112 sexual offences were reported to the police in Malta last year alone, while countless others have gone unreported. If you ever find yourself in such a situation, please do not hesitate to contact the authorities. This newspaper is also available if anyone would like to share their story and let their experience be known in the hope that better awareness can help prevent such incidents.