DUBAI// An Arabic language teacher threatened to fail his 11-year-old student if she did not let him touch her, Dubai Criminal Court was told.
Prosecutors said that on February 22 this year the girl’s mother walked into the living room of her home in Al Rafaa while her daughter was receiving private lessons and saw the 43-year-old Pakistani defendant touch the girl’s chest.
The teacher denied charges of sexual assault and another of issuing threats when he appeared in court on Sunday.
“I was teaching her when she started making some moves and then asked me to touch her, I didn’t lift her shirt up and I didn’t threaten her,” said defendant.
The girl, whose nationality was not mentioned in court records, told prosecutors that she had been having private lessons for two months before the incident happened.
“We were sitting in the living room when he touched me and when I pushed him away from me, he told me he would fail me in the subject if I didn’t let him,” said the student, adding that she let the defendant touch her for about 10 minutes before her mother walked in and started screaming.
“I’m used to hearing their voices as they studied and when I didn’t hear any sound I went to check on them and saw as he lifted up her shirt and touched her chest,” said the mother.
The woman called her husband and headed to a police station to report the incident.
A verdict will be issued on April 27.
salamir@thenational.ae