Court sentences man for Emirati housewife's rude awakening

A newspaper delivery man was acquitted on charges of sexual assault after he was accused of fondling housewife's bottom.

DUBAI // A newspaper delivery man was acquitted in court of touching an Emirati housewife's bottom as she slept but sentenced to two months in jail for trespassing.

Prosecutors charged the 24-year-old Bangladeshi man, M S, of sexually assaulting the 28-year-old Emirati housewife, M M, after he illegally entered her home in Al Safa district on May 9 last year in the early hours of the morning.

M S told the court he did not touch the woman but admitted to entering the house.

According to prosecution records, the Emirati housewife testified that as she slept she was shocked after she felt someone's hand on her buttocks and started screaming.

"I woke up shocked and immediately yelled at the defendant who was standing right behind me," she said. "The man then ran out of the house and I yelled to my husband who was sleeping in another room."

The woman told prosecutors she phoned her parents who live next door and reported the matter to the police.

M S's sandal was found inside the house and, in his statement to police, he claimed he left it behind when he escaped.

Officers from the Bur Dubai police station picked up M S the next morning for questioning. Police also summoned the housewife M M to identify the suspect in a police line-up before detaining him, records show.