Dubai: A manager has been acquitted of trying to secretly film a woman shopper, who wore a miniskirt, after his lawyer argued that the phone fell on the floor accidentally.
The woman was beside the cashier at a supermarket, when the 57-year-old British manager, E.A., was said to have put his phone on camera mode and placed it between her legs in January.
The Briton had pleaded not guilty and firmly rejected his accusations when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance.
“My client’s phone accidentally fell on the ground … it landed nearly under her legs. When he knelt down to pick up his phone, the woman mistakenly thought that E.A. was filming her as she wore a short dress. My client is not a young man to behave like that. He is a father and holds a very senior position in a reputable company. He did not commit any wrongdoing. He would not behave in a way that would jeopardise his career and life,” argued the Briton’s lawyer Saeed Al Gailani.
Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi acquitted the British man of attempted molestation for lack of corroborated evidence.
The woman testified that E.A. tried to film her before she exposed him.
“That was absolute nonsense. My client did not even take an snap or record any footage. If her claims were true … when law enforcement officers examined my client’s phone, not a single footage or image was found to have been saved or even deleted from his phone. Nothing was found … hence prosecutors’ evidence was insufficient to indict my client or even refer him to court. Why would he secretly film the woman while he can, if he had wanted, download movies from the internet? The woman’s claims are unsubstantiated,” contended lawyer Al Gailani.
The woman’s British friend alleged that the incident happened when he accompanied her to the supermarket at Jumeirah Beach Residence.
“She grabbed me by my shirt and in the meantime she also tried to stop the suspect from walking away. She told me that the suspect had filmed her. I walked towards the suspect and stopped him … then I took away his phone. I gave him back his phone after he promised to open the saved images and show me that he had not filmed my friend. The saved files on his phone contained video footage that showed the supermarket’s ceiling … then he suddenly deleted the file,” the British friend testified.
A policeman claimed to prosecutors that when he questioned E.A. he admitted that he had filmed the woman.
“The policeman who questioned the suspect had restrained my client and did not let him go … my client was handcuffed and put in the police car in front of his wife and children, who were crying as they did not know what had happened. My client was not treated appropriately … he was treated like a rapist or killer. He is innocent and did not commit that crime,” concluded Al Gailani.
