Dubai: A New Zealand banker, Brazilian model and a former Briton lap dancer caught in a violent love triangle in Dubai have been sentenced to jail for having consensual sex in a bizarre case that caught the imagination of expats in the country and made headlines around the world when it was first reported last December.
Kiwi Toby Carroll, 33, Brazillian Priscilla Ferreira, 25, and Brit Danielle Spencer, 31, were handed ‘guilty' verdicts by the Dubai Court of Misdemeanour on Wednesday, based on DNA evidence, forensic reports and their confessional statements.
HSBC investment banker Carroll and his ex-flame Ferreira got two months each while Carroll's girlfriend Spencer got just one. All three will be deported after serving their jail terms.
Curiously, none of them knew the verdict would be announced on Wednesday. Understandably so, they were taken by surprise and looked tense when Presiding Judge Ali Atiya Mohammad Sa'ad said he would deliver the verdict on Wednesday.
Sensing their discomfort, their lawyer tried to raise their spirits.
"Don't worry, I am here," he told them reassuringly. It didn't help. Shortly after the verdict - announced in the court's deliberation room behind closed doors - the trio were led away to detention quarters in Dubai Courts from where they were taken to the Central Prison. They had denied the charges.
Consensual sex
Caroll will remain behind bars for two months as he has been convicted on two counts of consensual sex. His love interests Spencer and Ferreira have got one month each for having consensual sex with him but Ferreira will have to spend another month in prison as she was found guilty to charges of threatening Carroll and Spencer with a knife. She has also been fined Dh1,000 for consuming alcohol.
The trio were arrested on December 12 last year after Carroll and Spencer's date turned violent. They were in Carroll's Dubai Marina apartment when the banker's ex-girl friend Ferreira burst in. Seeing them in bed, the Brazilian flew into a rage. She threatened them with a knife and wrecked several pieces of furniture in the apartment.
Spencer claimed she locked herself in the bathroom while Carroll called police.
All three were detained in Bur Dubai police station, where they spent Christmas and New Year, with the spurned girlfriends sharing the same cell. They were granted bail on January 23.
In a previous hearing on June 1, a forensic expert backed an earlier findings of DNA, who had said that semen traces found on the British girl belonged to Caroll.
At all hearings the trio appeared as friends, displaying no bitterness towards each other.
