DUBAI // A bus attendant who failed to protect a mentally impaired girl from being raped by the bus driver has been charged with endangering the girl's life.
The 17-year-old Emirati victim was being driven home from a sports club on July 23 last year when the driver, OZ, 26, from Pakistan, stopped the vehicle and had sex with her. He was found guilty of rape and jailed for five years.
The attendant LE, 39, a Filipina, claimed she tried to stop the pair but both resisted her.
The Misdemeanours Court heard the driver had dropped off all the other students when he parked the bus and moved to the back of the vehicle, where the girl joined him.
"I had just started work four days before the incident and I was so scared, especially that it was midnight during Ramadan and the driver stopped the bus in a deserted area," said the attendant.
She told the judge she tried to prevent both the driver and the girl from going to the back of the vehicle, but both refused to listen to her and the girl became hysterical. She then left them alone.
"I didn't look at them in the back seat but I could feel the bus rocking," said the attendant. She said when the girl approached her about 10 minutes later her abaya was open and the buttons of her trousers were undone.
She said the driver then returned to the wheel and dropped the girl at her house.
"I tried to ask her about what had happened before she jumped out of the bus but she kept saying 'nothing', so when I returned to work I told my colleague and the administration about the incident," the attendant said.
The court heard that it was not the first time the driver had molested the girl.
A report by Rashid Hospital described the girl as severely mentally impaired.
A verdict is expected on Tuesday.
