Dubai: A clerk was jailed for three months for secretly filming his neighbour naked in the washroom while she was taking a shower after fixing his phone discretely through an exhaust fan.
The 21-year-old Filipina receptionist had just undressed and went under the shower when she suddenly noticed on the mirror the reflection of a hand holding a mobile phone in October.
The woman looked properly and realised that the phone had been put on video mode and the lens was directed towards her.
The Filipina shouted loudly before she saw the hand being withdrawn quickly and removed from the exhaust fan.
The woman’s roommates rushed to the neighbouring flat and banged the door before a 21-year-old Indian clerk answered the door. He did not respond when the roommate asked him if he was the one who had filmed the receptionist.
The victim called the police, and when questioned, the Indian said he had filmed the woman secretly when she was naked in the shower.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of molesting the woman and breaching her privacy and modesty by secretly filming her in nude.
The defendant, who had pleaded not guilty, will be deported following the completion of his punishment.
“I did not film her … I didn’t do so,” he argued in court earlier. The victim testified that she was under the shower when she saw through the mirror a hand holding a mobile phone and filming her.
“I screamed and the hand was pulled away from the exhaust fan. The person who was filming me did not respond when I asked who it was. We live in a company-provided shared residence and the person who filmed me stayed in the adjacent unit. When my roommate knocked on the other flat’s door, the accused responded … but he didn’t answer her when she asked him if he had filmed me. He also deleted the footage when I screamed. The incident has been haunting me ever since … every time I am in a washroom, I feel embarrassed and scared,” she claimed to prosecutors.
An Indian administrator said he was informed about the incident in his capacity as the person in charge of the residence.
“The Filipina was angry and scared … she cried a lot and covered her face because she was too shy when she told the police what had happened. The defendant signed a written confession in which he admitted that he had filmed the receptionist without her knowledge three times and when she shouted, he deleted the images,” he testified.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal.
