DUBAI // A 19-year-old student who helped lure a 16-year-old girl to his home with the promise of a puppy has been sentenced to a year in prison for sexually assaulting her.
The Emirati student, A M, was convicted by Presiding Judge El Saeed Bargouth of the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance of molesting a Kuwaiti schoolgirl after she was tricked into coming to his home during an online chat.
A second student involved in the incident was tried in the Dubai Juveniles Court for sexual assault and conspiracy to commit a crime.
The girl told prosecutors she was chatting to the younger student in an internet chat room when he told her he had a dog for her.
"I wanted the dog and he claimed that he would give it to me after he sent pictures," she said.
"So I went to A M's villa to take the dog but then they forced me out of the car and took me into the majlis and touched me inappropriately and undressed me."
While defending himself before the Dubai Court of First Instance on May 15 last year, A M told Judge Bargouth: "I am not guilty; that is not how it happened."
Prosecutors however presented the juvenile suspect's confession to the court, in which he stated that he and A M had intentionally chatted with the girl with the intention of getting her to meet them. The juvenile said A M was aware of the plan, and the girl was not aware they intended to have sex with her.