'Peeping Tom' holes that are repeatedly cut into public toilet cubicles in Sliema will be sealed off with a metal sheet, mayor John Pillow said.

“We closed them many times and they keep making new holes. We are now going to put a sheet of metal so a person who wants to make a hole would need a proper drill,” he said.

The current cubicle walls are made of chipboard. 

Pillow added that the council was monitoring the public toilets near Exiles beach. Over the past years, holes have been drilled in the cubicles despite being closed off several times. 

He said there was a closed-circuit camera in the area. “For the past two weeks no man was seen going into the toilets,” he said.

A reader flagged the holes on the Women for Women Facebook page.

The issue was flagged again in the Facebook group Women for Women. One woman shared photos of the holes in the toilet cubical, as well as a notice warning people about the Peeping Tom.

She wrote: “Ladies. Can we please make some noise about this? This is in the toilets at Exiles in Sliema. Next to a children's playground. Which is constantly used by women and young girls… Apparently, this has been going on for years and when I took these photos yesterday, I noticed that some previous holes had been covered up. So this has happened before,” she wrote.

In 2019 Times of Malta reported that the Peeping Tom holes were being repaired.  Back then, Mayor Anthony Chircop said that people had seen a man in the area who was also bothering women.

One woman had described how she got scared when she went into the bathroom and heard a strange noise, then noticed someone in the next stall.  “I got scared and got out of my stall and saw that it was a man. He just sat there and looked at me and I left as fast as I could," she had said.