Dubai air-conditioning repairman denies sex assault on hotel receptionist

Filipina claims he touched her face and tried to hug and kiss her as she showed him the A/C control room late one night.

DUBAI // A mechanic’s assistant denied sexually assaulting a hotel receptionist when he was fixing the air conditioning in her workplace.

Dubai Criminal Court was told that on November 20 last year, a maintenance team arrived at a Dubai Airport hotel to fix the air conditioning at the pool and the fitness room, one of whom was Indian defendant P P, 26.

“It was after midnight when the defendant and two others came from the maintenance company and I showed them that the A/C at the fitness room was not working properly,” said the 26-year-old Filipina, S S.

“He asked me to take him to the room where the control of the A/C is. I took him while his colleagues waited at the reception.”

She said that, as she showed him the control, he put his shoulder next to hers and started looking at her strangely.

“I got scared and walked away from him but he stretched his hand and tried to open the jacket I was wearing,” she said.

The man is said to have touched her face and tried to hug and kiss her. “When I walked away, heading to the reception, he was behind me and touched my neck and back,” said the receptionist.

A verdict is due on February 22.