DUBAI // A waiter will spend three months in jail for gagging his female colleague and touching her after following her home.

Dubai Criminal Court convicted Indian S K, 21, of sexually assaulting the woman on November 8 last year.

He had followed the Filipina co-worker when she finished work at 4am.

“I noticed him when I reached the supermarket near my building, then he passed me by and, when I reached the lift, I found that he had been waiting for me there,” said 28-year-old J R.

She said she felt frightened and her fears grew when he asked her to get into the lift. “I told him I didn’t want to but he suddenly put his hand on my mouth, stopping me from making any sound, and pulled me into the lift, where he pushed me towards the wall of the lift and touched my chest,” she said.

“I kept on resisting and managed to press number one on the lift.”

The woman said she ran out and screamed when the lift doors opened and the Indian ran away.

She called police and officers checked the CCTV cameras.

They obtained a photo of the defendant from the recordings and he was arrested later that day in Jumeirah.

Prosecutors said that he confessed to the charge during police and prosecution investigations, though he denied it in court in January.

He will be deported after completing his jail term.

salamir@thenational.ae