Dubai — A cleaner, who forced a four-year-old girl into a flat where he removed his dress and performed an indecent act in front of her, has been jailed for three months.
The Emirati girl had been playing in the games ground at the building where she lives with her family. When she was returning home, the 24-year-old Nepalese cleaner grabbed the child and forced her into a vacant flat that he had been cleaning.
He undressed and touched himself in front of the girl then kissed her before he let her go to her residence in the building at Al Muraqabat.
The four-year-old suffered emotionally and mentally and could not sleep at night, suffering bad dreams until her mother became aware of it and queried her. The daughter told her mother what the cleaner had done to her. The incident was reported to the police.
On Monday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of stripping naked in front of the girl, touching himself and kissing her.
Presiding judge Urfan Omar said the accused, who pleaded not guilty, would be deported.
The mother said her child came to her at home and she seemed petrified and was tearful.
“When I asked her what had happened, she told me that accused took her into the flat, undressed and touched himself in a bad way in front of her. Then he kissed her. I had taught my girl never to speak to strangers or accompany them. She told me that when the defendant asked her to go with him, she told him that she was not permitted to speak to strangers. However, he dragged her into the flat and molested her. She didn’t sleep properly that evening and woke up after a bad dream in which she saw someone kidnapping her,” she testified.
The building’s security guard said the CCTV footages showed the defendant and the girl in front of the flat where the incident had happened.
Monday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
