Dubai man denies sexually assaulting 8-year-old

DUBAI // A driver has denied pulling an 8-year-old into his car and forcing himself upon her.

At Dubai Criminal Court on Sunday, Pakistani H K, 38, denied a sexual assault charge.

“I did not do any of those things, I saw her next to a supermarket and she asked me to drive her home, and that’s what I did, I treated her like she was my daughter, and I didn’t molest her,” the defendant told judges.

Prosecutors said on November 30 last year, the girl, also from Pakistan, was buying some items for her mother from a supermarket near her house in the Al Rashidiya area.

“He came towards me and started talking to me then brought me fruit and asked me to try it but I refused and went home,” said the girl, adding her mother told her she bought the wrong items and asked her to return to the supermarket and purchase the correct ones.

“When I returned I saw he was still there and offered me some fruit again but I refused, then he pulled me out of the supermarket and into his car,” she said.

She said he told her he only wanted to drive her home. “I told him that I did not ask of him to drive me home, he then took me to a nearby playground and parked the car,” said A N.

Prosecutors allege that H K started kissing, hugging and touching the girl before he took off his trousers.

“I begged him to take me back home and I was crying so hard after which he drove me back but asked me not to tell my family,” testified A N.

The girl told her mother who called the father and informed him of the incident. “Both of them, my wife and my daughter were crying hysterically on the phone when they told me what happened,” said the father A M, 44 who reported the incident to Al Rashisiya police station.

CCTV footage from the supermarket showed the defendant approaching the girl several times and sticking his body to hers before he took her out of the supermarket.

The driver was arrested on December 9 and prosecutors said he confessed to kissing her on the cheek and forehead only.

A verdict is expected on March 22.