Dubai entertainment park worker on sex assault charge over touching colleague’s face

Kenyan says he did not touch Emirati woman's face but prosecutors also accuse him of touching her waist and chest.

DUBAI // A Dubai Parks and Resorts employee molested a female colleague by touching her face, hand and chest, a court has been told.

But the Kenyan worker said he was only pointing at the Emirati woman’s henna during a friendly chat as they walked to her office on December 6 last year.

The woman, 20, told Dubai Criminal Court that she was alone with the defendant after a colleague left them.

“We were chatting then, as I was trying to get up, he stretched his arm to help me up. I didn’t mind but then he passed his hand on my face, waist and chest,” she said.

She said she screamed at him and reported him to management.

In court on Sunday, the man denied a sexual assault charge and said that they had been chatting about henna. He said he pointed at her hand and asked her about the designs on them.

“But I didn’t touch her face or any other part of her body. I pointed at her face, then when I touched her hand she was OK and didn’t mind,” he said.

“I didn’t know that touching someone’s hand as part of explaining something was wrong.”

A surveillance camera recording played in court showed the man help the woman up and his hand close to her face before she pushed him away.

A verdict is expected on February 8.

Dubai Parks and Resorts consists of three amusement parks in Jebel Ali – Motiongate Dubai, Bollywood Parks Dubai, Legoland Dubai and Legoland Water Park.