DUBAI // A cleaner who sexually assaulted his female colleague had his one year-sentence reduced to six months by the Appeals Court today.
MN, 30, from Sri Lanka, entered the woman's room by claiming he intended to fix a broken draw that her roommate had reported. But instead he grabbed her, pushed her on the bed and leapt on top of her.
When she wriggled free and ran into the corridor screaming he jumped out of the window and ran off.
Prosecutors said he knocked on her door at her company's accommodation block on November 22 last year.
"I told him I wanted to sleep and that he should return later as my roommate was not in and it was her broken drawer," recalled the woman, 21.
She said he refused to leave and told her she could sleep while he waited for the roommate to return.
When she tried to leave, he grabbed her and pushed her onto the bed on her stomach.
"He jumped on top of me and started touching me," she said, adding that she resisted him fiercely.
She screamed to draw the attention of her colleagues and managed to wriggle free of his grasp before running into the corridor. Her colleagues called police.
"I only held her," said the cleaner in his defence.
The Dubai Criminal Court found him guilty of a sexual assault charge and sentenced him to a year in prison last February.
He will be deported after completing his jail term.
salamir@thenational.ae
