DUBAI // An engineer who denied touching a girl inappropriately while he was in a lift with her and her small sisters at Dubai Mall has been found guilty.
The man, whose name and nationality were not given, was jailed for three months at Dubai Criminal Court on Thursday morning.
On July 26 last year the 14-year-old Saudi schoolgirl was at the 10th floor of the mall with her family but she left with her sisters, aged 2 and 5, for the lift to get to the play area on the third floor.
“A man came into the lift with us and, when the lift moved, the man drew closer to me and touched my behind,” she said. “I screamed at him and stood away.”
The victim added that the defendant walked out of the lift when it stopped but, when he noticed that she and her sisters were not getting out, he walked back in.
“I tried then to quickly get out of the lift but he had pressed the close button and closed the door faster than I could leave,” said the girl.
She said that he touched her again so she screamed at him and hit him on the shoulder and, when he saw her anger, he got out of the lift while turning his head and smiling at her.
The girl sent a text message to her mother telling her what had happened.
Father M J, 46, said: “My wife told me what happened so I went to them [his daughters] and me with my daughter then headed to the mall security and told them.”
Emirati policeman K A, 27, said the defendant was tracked down through surveillance camera footage.
“He denied it at first but then confessed and said that what he did was wrong,” said Emirati policeman W A, 26.
The engineer will be deported after completing his jail term.
salamir@thenational.ae
