DUBAI // A security guard accused of molesting a 10-year-old British schoolgirl in a lift was acquitted by the Criminal Court on Tuesday.
The 25-year-old security guard M K, from Sri Lanka, had previously denied sexually assaulting the girl when he appeared in court in October.
The child told prosecutors that the incident happened on May 26 at the building where she lived.
“I went to the car and picked up my iPad then waited for the lift so I could return to my home. Two lifts arrived and in one of them was a man who seemed nice to me and waved at me to come into the lift, so I did,” she said.
While inside the lift, the man cancelled the stop for her floor and began to touch her.
She screamed and jumped out the lift when the doors opened.
Her father E C, 50, an engineer, said his daughter had returned home sobbing and saying a man had touched her.
“I went out right away to look for him but did not find him. So, the next morning I reported the incident to police,” she said.
A E, the head of security at the building, said that when he examined the camera footage from the lift, someone had removed the recording from the time of the alleged incident.
“We did not know how that cut happened,” he said.
Policeman K F, 34, said when they interviewed M K, he said he knew nothing about the missing video footage.
salamir@thenational.ae
