DUBAI // A father jailed for nine months for sexually abusing his two daughters has had his prison sentence increased to 10 years.
The 40-year-old Emirati was convicted by the Dubai Criminal Court last February. However, prosecutors appealed against the sentence, believing he deserved a longer jail term. On Monday, the Dubai Court of Appeal agreed and increased his sentence to 10 years.
The man had denied a charge of sexually assaulting his daughters, now aged 16 and 12, in both courts.
He began abusing the eldest girl when she was 14 and would call her to his bedroom when she returned home from school. When she began avoiding him, the father turned his attention toward his younger daughter.
The sisters were abused in the living room of the family home and in the car. The abuse happened once a week and one occasion during Ramadan. The father would record the abuse on a mobile phone.
He emotionally blackmailed the sisters by telling them that if they told anyone what he had done, he would be jailed and the family would be broken up.
His 34-year-old wife, the girls’ mother, only discovered the abuse when she used her husband’s mobile phone and saw video clips of him and their youngest daughter.
“I spotted pictures and clips of the girls and when I played one of them I saw as he undressed our 12-year-old and started abusing her while she screamed at him saying ‘stop, stop daddy’,” said the mother who has filed for divorce.
When she spoke to her daughters, they told her that their father warned them against telling anyone, especially her, and if they did the family would be destroyed.
“When I confronted him he confessed,” said the mother.
The father was previously sentenced to three months for sexually abusing one daughter and six months for abusing the other. The appeals court increased the first sentence to three years and the second to seven years.
salamir@thenational.ae