‘I am not an animal’: salesman denies molesting girl, 4

DUBAI // A salesman has denied molesting a 4-year-old girl, telling the Criminal Court that he was “not an animal”.

H M, 28, an Egyptian, is accused of sexually assaulting the child, also from Egypt, at the mall where he worked on January 22 this year.

The court heard from F N, 31, a Pakistani housewife, who said she witnessed the incident at about 11.30pm on the day.

“I saw as he pulled her to an empty corner and kissed her while she was saying ‘leave me’ then he spanked her,” said F N.

She approached H M who told her that the child was his niece.

“But when I asked the girl, she told me he was not related to her. She was crying at the time,” said FN, who started screaming at the defendant, drawing the attention of passers-by.

The girl’s mother told the court she was at the shopping centre with her family, when she left her child in the company of her cousins at a games arcade.

She said that her son called her few minutes later and told her to hurry to his location.

“I told my husband to go first and when I followed him, my son said that our daughter was crying and I asked my husband what had happened,” said the mother, M M A, 32, an Egyptian.

“He told me a woman informed him that an employee molested our daughter.”

H M told the court: “I am not an animal your honour and I have nieces and nephews myself. How could I do such a thing to child?

“I have been working there for more than three years and many children come to this section. I have never done such a thing and would never do it.”

HM’s lawyer requested that the court reviews the recordings from the shopping centre’s surveillance cameras.

The next hearing will be on March 3 to listen to the testimonies of witnesses.