DUBAI // A man who forced his way into his ex-employer's house and sexually assaulted a maid has been sentenced to six months in prison.
AA, 37, from India, chased the maid around the house and through the garden before grabbing her by her gown and fondling her breasts. But she pushed him away and ran screaming to her room where she locked herself in until he had gone.
The man knocked on the door of his ex-employer, for whom he had worked as a driver, on February 1 last year. When the maid opened the door, he asked to see her sponsor, who was not in.
The ex-driver then handed his mobile phone number to the maid and pretended he was about to leave. Instead he barged through the door and chased her through the villa. The maid ran through the garden to reach her room but before she could get there the man caught her and sexually assaulted her.
She pushed him away and ran screaming to her room where another maid was showering.
The other maid said she heard the screams of her colleague and opened the room's door to see her being chased by the man. She let her colleague in and locked the door.
"He started knocking on the door and asked me to return the piece of paper with his number," recalled the maid. "I think he feared being traced by the number if I reported him to police."
The two maids waited in the room until the man had gone.
The maid's Emirati sponsor, SH, testified that he fired the driver four years ago when he discovered he drank alcohol.
The ex-driver was charged with sexual assault and trespassing. He denied the first and confessed to the second, however he was convicted of both charges.
He will be deported following his prison term.
salamir@thenational.ae