DUBAI // A hotel security manager forced his way into a guest’s room, pushed her on to a bed and tried to rape her, the Criminal Court was told on Wednesday.
The woman, 23, from Ukraine, told police her first encounter with the man was on March 11, when he called her room to say that it required some maintenance work.
“He showed up some time later with a maintenance crew and started fixing stuff in my room. When they were done, the team left but he lingered in the room and started chatting me up, asking if I could be his girlfriend.
“Then he approached me and kissed me on my cheek and I forced him out of the room.”
She said he called her room again, told her he loved her and tried to flirt with her.
On the day of the alleged attack, the woman said she was getting ready to go to the beach when the security manager barged into her room.
“He forced himself in and attacked me. He threw me on the bed and started kissing me all over my body, then he lowered his pants and I used that moment to push him away and I screamed at him to leave my room.
“He later slid a note underneath my door saying he was sorry. I told one of my friends about it and she advised me to file a police report.”
A police officer told the court CCTV footage showed the security manager visiting the woman’s room nine times.
“We saw him opening the room door using the master key of the hotel rooms and unhooking the metal chain that is used to lock the room from the inside.
“We also noticed that he lurked in her room for almost an hour after the maintenance crew left the room and we have him on tape sliding the note under the door.”
The security manager, a 24-year-old Pakistani expatriate, denies attempted rape. He told the judge the Ukrainian woman had a grudge against him because he refused to let her friends park at the hotel.
A verdict is due on May 28.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
