DUBAI // A man who molested an eight-year-old girl and threatened to kill her if she told anyone has been jailed for six months.
The 21-year-old Pakistani worker asked the girl and her younger brother to play hide and seek before touching her chest, kissing her on the cheek and neck and threatening her.
At Dubai Criminal Court earlier this month, he denied charges of sexual assault and issuing threats to kill.
“I always play hide and seek with the girl and her sibling under the building in a public place, not in the children’s building,” said the defendant.
On August 29, the Indian girl and her brother were playing inside their building in Al Riffa when the defendant told them to play hide and seek with him.
“When my brother hid, he dragged me to the staircase and touched me then kissed me, so I slapped him and walked away, but he followed me and told me he would kill me if I told anyone about what happened,” said the girl who returned home and went to her room in tears.
“I heard her crying so I went to her room and asked her what happened. She told me she had been molested,” said her 40-year-old father, adding his daughter’s neck had been bitten by the defendant.
The father called police who arrived and arrested the worker.
The court was told a bruise on the left side of the child’s neck was consistent with her story.
The defendant was sentenced to six months in jail and will be deported after serving his prison term.
salamir@thenational.ae
