A cleaner who followed an 11-year-old girl to her Dubai home before indecently assaulting her will spend a year behind bars.
The Indian attacker, 23, followed the girl from thecommunal swimming pool at an Al Barsha residential building and sneaked into the family apartment without being noticed.
He then dragged the girl out of the apartment and took her to an emergency exit, where he assaulted her.
The offender wrote his mobile phone number on the palm of his young victim's hand and then returned her to her flat.
Dubai Criminal Court heard the incident occurred on June 1.
The girl's mother, who had sent her home to eat her lunch, returned to their apartment to find the man was still at the property.
“I went home to check on her because I upset her by sending her home. I rang the bell because I found the door locked,” said the mother.
When her daughter opened the door, the mother found the attacker inside her flat. He claimed to be a maintenance worker.
“He said my daughter called maintenance complaining about the balcony door and he came to check it,” she said.
Knowing that he was a cleaner, the woman called police, only for the intruder to push his way out of the apartment.
He was later tracked down by police and arrested.
The man was convicted of sexual assault on a minor and trespassing during a hearing on Monday, and will be deported after serving his prison term.