Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar has said she was sexually harassed while walking to Parliament around a year and a half ago. 

“This is the first time I’m saying this publicly but I had to file a sexual harassment report a year and a half ago,” Cutajar said in Parliament earlier this week.

“Action was taken immediately and this must be the order of the day, not because I filed the report but for every case.”

Cutajar said she had considered letting the incident pass but decided to report it because she wanted to send a message to society.

“If a man thinks he can harass MPs, let alone how entitled he must feel to harass any other woman,” she warned. “I stress on the need not to be silent and to speak out against these situations.”

Cutajar was addressing a debate on a bill to specifically criminalise femicide, which the government proposed following last month’s murder of Paulina Dembska.

According to the bill, men who are found guilty of murder and attempted murder of women within “femicidal circumstances” will face harsher sentences, with the judiciary taking this into consideration when delivering sentences post-jury verdict. 

Crime of passion will also be removed as a mitigating factor for femicides, but will remain valid for other murder cases.

Lovin Malta recently interviewed Fleur Abela, one of the lawyers who worked on the bill, and you can follow it below.