Dubai: A clerk has been accused of secretly filming his neighbour naked in the washroom while she was taking a shower.
The 21-year-old Filipina receptionist was in the shower when she noticed a hand holding a mobile through the mirror in October.
The woman looked properly before she recognised that the phone had been put, according to records, on video mode and it was directed towards her. The Filipina shouted loudly before she saw the hand being withdrawn quickly and removed from the exhaust fan.
Records said the woman’s roommates rushed to the neighbouring flat and banged the door before a 21-year-old Indian clerk answered the door. The clerk did not respond when the roommate asked him if he was the one who had filmed the receptionist.
The Filipina called the police, and when questioned, the Indian clerk admitted that he had filmed the woman secretly when she was naked in the shower.
Prosecutors charged the suspect with molesting the woman and breaching her privacy and modesty by he secretly filming her in nude.
The suspect pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Tuesday.
“No I did not film her … I didn’t do that,” he told presiding judge Mohammad Jamal in courtroom three.
The Filipina testified to prosecutors that she was under the shower when she saw through the mirror a hand holding a mobile phone and filming her.
“I shouted immediately and the hand was pulled away from the exhaust fan. The person who was filming me did not respond when I asked who was it. We live in a company-provided shared residence and the person who filmed me stayed in the adjacent unit. When my roommate knocked the other flat’s door, the suspect answered … but he didn’t answer her when she asked him if he had filmed me. He also deleted the footage when I screamed. The incident has been haunting me ever since … I feel embarrassed and scared every time I use a toilet,” she claimed to prosecutors.
An Indian administrator claimed to prosecutors that he was informed about the incident in his capacity as the person in charge of the residence.
“The Filipina was angry and scared … she cried a lot and covered her face because she was too shy when she reported the matter to the police. The suspect signed a written confession in which he admitted that he filmed the receptionist without her knowledge three times and when she shouted he deleted the images,” he testified to prosecutors.
A ruling will be heard on December 27.
