DUBAI// A worker has confessed to molesting three siblings at Dragon Mart mall.
The 35-year-old Bangladeshi pleaded guilty to charges of sex assault and issuing threats when he appeared at Dubai Criminal Court.
The defendant threatened to beat one of the victims if she told her parents about what he had done to her and her sister and brother.
The children went to the mall with their parents to fix their brother’s bicycle on March 4.
“As I talked to one of the workers in the shop I saw as the defendant playing with my youngest son and trying to show him how to ride a bicycle. I thought he worked at the shop,” said the father who went to pray with his wife while their children, aged 8, 6, and 3, waited at the store.
“I heard an Arab man screaming loudly and asking about the parents of my children. I hurried to where he was and he told me that a man was molesting them and when he caught him, he ran away,” said the children’s mother, adding that her daughter was crying as she explained how the defendant had touched her.
The woman reported the incident at the mall’s police station. Officers printed out a photo of the defendant from security cameras and distributed it.
“I was on duty when I spotted him at Dragon Mart. I screamed at him but when he saw me in uniform he ran away,” said a 25-year-old policeman who chased the defendant and arrested him.
During prosecution investigations, the children described how the defendant abused them.
A verdict is expected on January 29.
salamir@thenational.ae
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