An Italian woman has spoken about the way a sexual assault last Sunday left her traumatised and changed her impression of Malta.   

Lara Ali Shahin, a teacher and local councillor from Italy’s Veneto region was on a solo weekend getaway to Malta, staying in a St Paul’s Bay hotel. She said she was out with friends she had just met in a nearby pub when a man around her age made advances that she ignored.  

As she returned to her room later in the evening she came across the same man, who claimed he too had a room there. The man followed her into her room and assaulted her. 

“He threw me onto the bed and put his tongue inside my mouth. Then he covered my mouth with his hand because I started screaming,” Ali Shahin said.

Her screams alerted staff who rushed to the room and pulled the man off. The aggressor managed to escape, she told Times of Malta and the Italian media.

Police confirmed that a report had been filed and investigations are underway. 

“The police told me I will have to go back to identify the aggressor if they find him,” Ali Shahin said.  

“Sadly my initial positive view of Malta has disappeared,” said the 32-year-old who frequently travels by herself but never experienced a similar trauma.

“I am very disappointed, above all because I realised that there is really a lack of security,” the Italian national told Times of Malta.