DUBAI // A waiter who molested a 16-year-old girl in a lift was on Thursday sentenced to five months in prison.
Prosecutors told the court that at about 3pm on January 24, the Indian girl was sent by her father to the bakery to buy bread when Afghani A A, 22, followed her home.
The teenager testified: “I went to the bakery in the building next to ours. There I noticed the defendant smiling at me, I looked away and headed back home.
“While on my way back, I noticed a delivery man who frequently delivers food to our family. He said hello to me and I responded and continued on my path.
“Then, out of nowhere, I heard the defendant tell me, ‘I thought he was greeting me, and not you’.
“I ignored his comment and entered our building. He followed me and entered the lift with me and, once the lift door closed, he asked me for my number. I refused to give him my number, and hid my mobile inside my pocket.”
Records show the defendant leaned over the girl and asked her for a kiss, but the victim turned her face and tried to push him away.
“He held me tight with one hand and with the other he touched the inside of my thighs until the lift opened. I ran away inside our apartment,” said the girl.
The girl’s father, Indian S S, 40, said: “My daughter was panicking and in tears that day. Her mother asked her why she was crying. My daughter told her what happened to her, and my wife told me the whole incident.”
The father then reported the matter at Al Qusais police station.
Police records show that the teenager identified her attacker in a police line-up.
At Dubai Criminal Court on Thursday, the Afghani was found guilty and sentenced to five months in jail. On completion of his sentence he will be deported.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
