DUBAI // An engineer has denied touching a teenage girl inappropriately as she got into the lift to a play area at Dubai Mall with her two young sisters.
Dubai Criminal Court heard from the 14-year-old Saudi girl on Thursday morning about the alleged incident on July 26.
“A man came into the lift with us and, when the lift moved, the man drew closer to me and touched my behind,” the girl said. “I screamed at him and stood away.”
She added that the defendant walked out of the lift when it stopped but as he noticed that she and her sisters, aged 2 and 5, were not getting out, he walked back in.
“I tried then to quickly get out of the lift but he pressed the close button and closed the door faster than I could leave,” said the girl, who said that he touched her again so she screamed at him and hit him on the shoulder. When he noticed how angry she was, he got out of the lift but turned his head and smiled at her, she said.
The girl sent a text message to her mother, who was at a different floor with her father, to tell them what happened.
“My wife told me what happened so I went to my daughter then headed to the mall security and told them,” said the father, M J, 46.
Emirati policeman K A, 27, said the defendant confessed willingly to him that he did molest the girl after being tracked down through surveillance cameras.
“He denied at first but then confessed and said that what he did was wrong,” testified Emirati policeman W A, 26.
The next hearing is on October 30.
salamir@thenational.ae
