DUBAI // A gardener who asked a 16-year-old girl to help rescue a dying cat was sentenced to three months in jail for molesting her.
The Dubai Criminal Court was told that Pakistani H B, 30, watched the victim, N M, who is from the UK, feeding cats outside her home in Al Satwa. He waited until she was home alone on April 17 this year before calling for her help.
“He rang the doorbell at 1pm and told me that my cat was dying and trapped in the garden,” the girl said.
“When I bent down to see her, he pressed his body against mine, but I pushed him.”
She told prosecutors that he then grabbed her breast. She tried to scare him off by telling him her parents were coming.
“He got scared and jumped on the bicycle and left,” said the schoolgirl, who then called her parents.
Police officer M K said officers met the girl’s father, who gave a description of the suspect. “We did some patrols in the area and saw H B, who matched the description we had,” said M K. “He was riding a bicycle near the residence of the victim.”
“When my daughter picked out H B from a line-up, I recognised that he had come about a month back and asked about our cats. I talked to him and I asked him to leave,” said N M’s mother, L T, 46, a teacher.
The gardener said he did not know the girl and, on the day of the incident, had been working in Jumeirah before returning to Satwa, where he was arrested.
In court in July, he pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual assault and told the judge he had never seen the victim before.
He was found guilty and will be deported after serving his jail term.
salamir@thenational.ae
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Last 10 winners of African Footballer of the Year
2006: Didier Drogba (Chelsea and Ivory Coast)
2007: Frederic Kanoute (Sevilla and Mali)
2008: Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal and Togo)
2009: Didier Drogba (Chelsea and Ivory Coast)
2010: Samuel Eto’o (Inter Milan and Cameroon)
2011: Yaya Toure (Manchester City and Ivory Coast)
2012: Yaya Toure (Manchester City and Ivory Coast)
2013: Yaya Toure (Manchester City and Ivory Coast)
2014: Yaya Toure (Manchester City and Ivory Coast)
2015: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund and Gabon)
2016: Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City and Algeria)
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
