Driver accused of molesting girl at Dubai Aquarium

Dubai: A driver, who was caught on surveillance cameras indecently touching a nine-year-old girl at Dubai Aquarium has been accused of molesting a minor.

The 44-year-old Pakistani driver, S.A., was said to have come up from behind the girl, who was accompanied by her mother, and touched her at Dubai Mall in August.

Prosecutors accused the suspect of molesting the girl.

The defendant pleaded not guilty when he showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday.

“No, I didn’t,” S.A. told presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi in court.

According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said S.A. took advantage of the fact that the girl was standing with her back towards him at the ticket booth before he molested her.

A police corporal claimed to prosecutors that the girl and her mother reported the matter to Dubai Police’s Operations Room.

“The suspect was apprehended shortly after that and brought in for questioning. The suspect claimed that he saw the girl standing beside the Aquarium with a mature woman, whom he believed to be her mother, at 5pm. The mother and her daughter were purchasing tickets at the booth, according to S.A. The latter alleged that he decided to head to the girl and molest her. He admitted that he pressed his body very close to that of the nine-year-old. During questioning, the defendant further claimed that he groped the girl. The suspect willingly admitted that he molested the girl and was not coerced to confess to a crime he did not do … what he mentioned to the investigating prosecutors [about him being coerced to confess] is not true,” testified the corporal.

According to prosecution records, Dubai Police’s forensic report confirmed that S.A. was clearly seen on surveillance cameras drawing his body very close to that of the girl.

Meanwhile the suspect was cited at telling prosecutors that he molested the girl. When prosecutors confronted him with the CCTV footage, S.A. admitted that he was the person shown in the surveillance cameras standing behind the girl.

Presiding judge Al Shamsi will hand out a ruling on November 8.