Dubai: A barber, who molested a 14-year-old deaf and mute boy in a barbershop shortly after his elder brother had dropped him off for a haircut, has been jailed for three months
A 30-year-old Emirati man accompanied his younger brother, who suffers from speech and hearing impairment, to a barbershop in Umm Al Sheef area in September.
The elder brother asked the 40-year-old Indian barber to trim his brother’s beard while he waited outside the shop.
When the brothers were walking back home, the boy used sign language to tell his brother that the barber had touched him indecently.
He then took his brother back to the barbershop and when the latter pointed at the defendant, he called the police.
The Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced in absentia the accused for taking advantage of the boy’s condition and molesting him.
Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal said the accused, who failed to attend his trial, will be deported following the completion of his punishment, according to Tuesday’s ruling.
The Emirati man testified that once they reached home, his younger brother informed him that he had been molested by the defendant.
“My brother told via sign language that the suspect touched his thighs and chest indecently. I took my brother back to the barbershop and the suspect denied molesting my brother upon confronting him. Then I called the police,” he told prosecutors.
The defendant was quoted as admitting to prosecutors that he had molested the boy.
The defendant is entitled a retrial, as per the UAE’s Criminal Procedures Law, once he is apprehended or surrenders himself.
