DUBAI // A man already in jail for bouncing a cheque will have to spend more time behind bars after a media appeal for a home for his five-year-old daughter led to a conviction for sex outside marriage.
K T, 35, had already been found guilty of the bounced cheque charge when his friend, who was looking after his daughter, appealed in the press for a home for the girl.
The report alerted authorities and the Sri Lankan man was sentenced to one year for having sex outside marriage with his Filipino girlfriend M K, 34, who has already been deported over visa offences.
K T admitted to having consensual sex with his girlfriend when he appeared at Dubai Court of Misdemeanours on Tuesday but claimed they had married in Sharjah, though he did not have the certificate.
He said the pair had been in a relationship from 2007 and the girl was born on March 11, 2009 but she was not registered.
“We didn’t have legal residency at the time, so we couldn’t get a birth certificate for my daughter,” said K T.
The Filipina was deported and the man jailed over the bounced cheque, leaving his friend and fellow Sri Lankan, N A, 34, to look after the daughter.
“He told me to go to the Sri Lankan embassy to get travel papers so that he can send his daughter back home,” testified N A.
“I tried to put the girl in a nursery because I have to work, but they refused because the girl doesn’t have any identification papers. A news reporter published a story about the little girl in the hope of finding someone to take care of her.”
A one-year sentence was also given to the Filipina, who was sentenced in her absence.
The little girl is currently being cared for by Dubai Police’s child protection department.
salamir@thenational.ae
