DUBAI // A British man who was accused of raping his stepdaughter’s friend at a birthday party was found not guilty by Dubai Criminal Court.
The court heard the 17-year-old was invited to a party and sleepover at her friend’s villa in Al Barsha.
The teenager said the birthday girl’s mother and 63-year-old stepfather were drinking alcohol, dancing and eating.
“At around 8.30pm I noticed my phone was missing.
“I started looking for it when the defendant touched me from behind,” the girl said, adding that he followed her around the house and told her he was “enchanted by her beauty” and wished “he was in his 20s so he could be with her”.
“I didn’t give him much attention and resumed looking for my phone,” she said.
Later that night, the man allegedly hugged the teenager in the garden. His wife saw him, screamed at him and asked for a divorce.
The girl then went to a bedroom to sleep while the man slept on a couch in the living room. She claimed she awoke to find him touching her.
“When I asked him what he was doing, he told me to shush,” said the girl, who then claimed he held her on the bed and raped her .
The next day at school, she told a friend and the school social worker, who contacted police.
The results of a forensic report were inconclusive and found no traces of the defendant’s DNA on the girl.
He denied a charge of rape at a hearing in March.
The court acquitted him of all charges.
salamir@thenational.ae
The biog
Born: High Wycombe, England
Favourite vehicle: One with solid axels
Favourite camping spot: Anywhere I can get to.
Favourite road trip: My first trip to Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan. The desert they have over there is different and the language made it a bit more challenging.
Favourite spot in the UAE: Al Dhafra. It’s unique, natural, inaccessible, unspoilt.
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From Conquest to Deportation
Jeronim Perovic, Hurst
Volvo ES90 Specs
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The specs: 2018 BMW R nineT Scrambler
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Cryopreservation: A timeline
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Meydan race card
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Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
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UAE squad
Ali Kashief, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdelrahman, Mohammed Al Attas (Al Jazira), Mohmmed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammad Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Eisa, Mohammed Shakir, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Adel Al Hosani, Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah), Waleed Abbas, Ismail Al Hammadi, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli Dubai) Habib Fardan, Tariq Ahmed, Mohammed Al Akbari (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Mahrami (Baniyas)
