Dubai: A cleaner will be jailed for 13 months for getting drunk and knocking a woman to the ground before stealing her mobile phone while she was in a public park.

The 21-year-old Pakistani cleaner, T.Q., attacked the woman in the park and tried to take her purse, but she resisted and when she cried for help, he hushed her with his hand in December. Then he threw her to the ground and snatched her mobile phone and ran away.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted T.Q. of getting drunk and robbing the woman using physical violence.

According to the primary ruling, the defendant was handed a year in jail for theft and one month for drinking.

He will be deported following the completion of his imprisonment, said the presiding judge.

When he appeared in court, the accused admitted that he had consumed alcohol but denied the charge of robbing the woman.

When asked if he threw the woman to the ground and robbed her, T.Q. replied: “I did not steal… I only had alcohol.”

An Indian visitor said he spotted the cleaner attacking the woman while he was near the park at 11pm.

“My wife and I were walking when we spotted the man beating the woman, who was shouting at him. At first we thought it was an ordinary fight between a man and his wife … yet when I heard the woman crying for help, I rushed towards her and pushed the drunk man away. The defendant ran away after he took the woman’s mobile phone,” claimed the visitor.

Records said the defendant was arrested in an area nearby.

A policeman said Dubai Police’s Operation Room was notified that the incident took place at the Russia Cluster of Dubai International City.

“The woman claimed to police that the accused had been walking behind her before he knocked her to the [ground] and stole her mobile. She said when he tried to take away her purse, she fought back. Yet the defendant stole the mobile and ran away. When I called the woman’s mobile number, a police sergeant, who had arrested the defendant in another area, answered. The sergeant told me that T.Q. was detained because he was drunk and acted rowdily,” said the policeman.

The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 12 days.