Student acquitted of having sex with minor girl

Dubai: A student has been acquitted of having sex with a minor girl with whom he had been chatting on a messaging app.

The Emirati student, S.M., had denied the accusation of luring the 13-year-old girl, an Emirati, to meet him outside her parents’ home and then driving away with her after the girl sneaked out through a window. During the ride, he was alleged to have had sex with her twice at 2am in April.

Citing lack of corroborated evidence, the Dubai Court of First Instance cleared S.M. of having forced sex with her twice in the car and molesting her.

The girl claimed to prosecutors that she became acquainted with S.M. three months before the incident via the social media app Snapchat.

“We communicated for a period and I constantly refused to date him. That evening, I agreed to meet him. I sneaked out from the window so that my family would not know. He picked me up and he had a friend with him. I sat in the front passenger seat beside him while he drove. He stopped the car in a parking lot beside City Walk … his friend left us. We moved to the back seat, kissed and had intercourse. His friend drove us back towards my house. Then he had sex with me a second time while his friend waited outside the car. I returned to the house but my dad had discovered that I was outside and he reported to the police that I was missing. When we went to the police station, I told them what happened,” she claimed.

A police lieutenant claimed to prosecutors that the girl’s father reported her missing at 2am.

“Around 4am he returned to the police station to inform us that she had returned home. When asked about her absence, the girl told us what had happened. We summoned the defendant after the girl provided us with his contact number. During questioning, S.M. claimed that he met the girl through Snapchat and that he kissed her that evening in his friend’s car,” said the lieutenant.

The suspect’s lawyer argued in court that prosecutors’ evidence was insufficient to convict S.M. of rape or molestation.

The girl’s claims were unfounded and full of contradictions, argued the lawyer.

The ruling remains subject to appeal within 12 days.