DUBAI// An unemployed man entered a woman’s apartment, placed a plastic bag over her head and attempted to rape her, a court heard on Sunday.
At 8pm on February 6 this year, the alleged victim, 35, from Morocco, was washing clothes in her bathroom after her sister had left to shop at a nearby grocery store.
“We didn’t lock the door because the shop was just one floor down as we lived on the first floor,” said the woman, who works as a model.
She said she heard the door open and thought her sister had returned but was shocked when she turned to see a man standing outside her bathroom door.
The defendant, 27, who holds a Comoros Islands passport, then placed a plastic bag on the woman’s head but when she managed to remove it, he pulled her by the hair, started hitting her and demanding they have sex.
“He then threw me to the floor, I was screaming out loud for help as he tried to undress me with one hand while strangling me with the other, but my sister arrived at the moment and grabbed him from the back of his shirt,” said the woman.
The sister, 37, said she tried to hold onto the man’s shirt and restrain him until police arrived but he managed to escape and jumped out of their window.
The man was arrested shortly afterwards.
An Emirati policeman, who questioned the defendant, said: “He told me that he was drunk and leaving a nightclub when he saw the woman and followed her home, then decided to rob her home.”
The officer said the defendant confessed to entering the apartment, believing it was empty but found the woman there and they fought as she was trying to stop him from fleeing.
In court this morning, the man denied charges of trespassing, attempted rape and consuming alcohol without a licence.
The next hearing will be on May 12 to appoint a lawyer for the defendant.
salamir@thenational.ae
