Dubai: A football coach has been jailed for three years for molesting a 15-year-old boy under the threat of publishing his pictures on social media, a court ruled on Wednesday.
The 35-year-old Indian coach, F.M., became acquainted with the Indian boy on Facebook and had been training him along with a group of youngsters in football since June 2015.
In October, the coach drove his team players to their homes and the 15-year-old boy was the last to be dropped off.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted F.M. of forcing the boy to undress and molested him in his car.
F.M. was also convicted of cyberblackmail, inciting the boy to engage with him sexually, storing child pornographic pictures on his electronic devices and showing them to the boy.
Records said when the boy refused to comply with the defendant’s wishes, F.M. blackmailed the teenager and threatened to upload his naked photos on Facebook.
Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi said the accused will be deported after serving his punishment.
According to Wednesday’s ruling, the devices that contained the pornographic material will be confiscated.
The accused said the smartphone [which contained the indecent footages] seized from him belonged to a friend who had left it with him before he travelled.
The defendant coerced the boy to perform indecent acts, according to records, and then molested him. He abused the telecommunication system and blackmailed the boy. He was also accused of showing the boy pornographic films in an attempt to encourage him to have sex with him.
The boy told prosecutors that he met the coach on Facebook and had been training with him for four months before the incident happened.
“He used to drive me and my friends to and from the pitch in his car. On that particular day, he dropped everybody off and instead of driving me to my house, he parked his car behind a school. I refused to remove my clothes when he asked me to do so … then he moved to the back seat and claimed that he possessed naked photos of mine that he threatened to post on Facebook if I did not please him. I could not run away because I was too scared and he had locked the doors. When he finished, he threatened to post the photos on social media if I told anybody about what he had done to me,” the boy testified.
A police lieutenant testified that following F.M.’s arrest, police found child pornographic material on his smartphone and photos of the players he used to coach.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
