Dubai: On Sunday a cleaner pleaded not guilty to threatening to kill an 8-year-old schoolboy if he told anyone that the cleaner allegedly groped him on the school premises.
Prosecutors charged the 40-year-old Nepalese cleaner of sexually molesting the Emirati schoolboy and threatening to kill him if he reported the alleged abuse.
"I am not guilty ... I didn't molest or touch his buttocks. What really happened is that there was a group of noisy children gathered in school, when I asked them to leave the premises I pushed the 8-year-old from [behind]. I didn't grope his buttocks," said the cleaner, R.B. before the Dubai Court of First Instance.
The boy's mother testified to prosecutors that her son revealed to her that the defendant placed his hand inside his underwear, groped him, and took him to the school's restroom.
"I didn't threaten to kill the boy," said R.B. when he pleaded his innocence before Presiding Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout.
The suspect grabbed the 8-year-old by his shirt, according to the mother's prosecution statement, and tried to take him to the restroom.
"My son told me that when the suspect let him go when he saw a number of kids in the restroom ... he walked back to him a second time and put his hand inside my son's clothes. When my son tried to resist the defendant, the latter threatened to kill him and slapped him," she said.
"Immediately I drove my car to the school to check out what really happened. After I informed one of the teachers, they brought me all the cleaners and my son pointed at the suspect."
She told prosecutors that the defendant told her "I do this...forgive me...I have children" while they were inside the management office.
