Workers’ concerns over peep holes in GMIT students’ toilets

Workers and contractors at GMIT voiced concerns about children being on the campus and using toilets at weekends during an internal investigation into holes purposely drilled in cubicle walls by a ‘Peeping Tom’.

The matter was raised in statements made by three different people during an internal investigation which found the holes were drilled for the purposes of ‘peep-holes’.

They pointed out that children use the campus on Saturdays and in the summer, and the holes in cubicle walls in male toilet blocks were “uniform, purpose-made”.

They identified a specific person’s “odd behaviour” in and around the toilets, and a number of them named him as a lecturer in the college – one department head said she had been told by builders that the lecturer “hangs around the building on Saturdays”.

The internal investigation was launched in the college after holes were continually being drilled in cubicle walls in toilet blocks.

Details of the investigation – which dates back to mid-2008 – were made public by the Mail on Sunday last weekend.

However, further documentation from the investigation seen by the Galway City Tribune reveals that three separate statements were made in relation to concerns about ‘peep holes’ being used on Saturdays, when minors are on campus.

The investigation did not determine that the lecturer had been responsible for drilling the holes, or that he had used them as peep holes.

He continues to work at the college, and at the time of the investigation gave an assurance that he would confine himself to the use of staff toilets “out of prudence”.

One maintenance worker’s statement read that the lecturer went into a middle cubicle one lunchtime. “I knelt down to tie my shoe lace, I could see by his feet position that he wasn’t using the toilet. I went back outside. We waited in the corridor and observed [the lecturer] leave the toilets and run into the canteen. In total, [he] was in the bathroom for about 20 minutes.

“On one occasion we filled the holes on the Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, each time they were knocked through straight away. When we came back in the next Monday, the holes were there again.

“I spend a lot of time walking around the buildings and I have observed [the lecturer] using the toilets more often than you would expect someone to use them normally,” the worker said.

For more on the witness statements and the investigation, see this week’s Galway City Tribune