Drunk cleaner accused of groping sleeping woman
Suspect sneaked into bedroom where victim was sleeping with roommates
Dubai: A cleaner has been accused of getting drunk and sneaking into the bedroom of a woman and groping her while she slept.
The Filipina employee was in sleeping with her roommates when she suddenly woke up to a hand touching her private parts at 5.40am in November.
The woman saw the building’s 37-year-old Egyptian cleaner, kneeling down in front of her bed and groping her.
She yelled at him and her roommate woke up and switched on the lights following which the cleaner ran out of the room.
The Filipina told her roommate that the cleaner had groped her and they called the police.
Police arrived at the building in Al Muraqabat area and apprehended the 37-year-old cleaner, who had changed his clothes.
Prosecutors accused the Egyptian of drinking four beers and groping the woman.
The suspect pleaded not guilty when he showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday.
“Yes, I drank alcohol but I didn’t grope the woman,” he contended before presiding judge Habib Awad.
The Filipina claimed to prosecutors that the incident happened in her bedroom at 5.40am.
“I suddenly woke up to a hand sliding up my thighs from under the sheet and then it touched my private parts. I removed the sheet quickly and noticed that the suspect had knelt down partly on my bedside and partly on the floor. We called the police who apprehended the suspect on the ground floor. When he saw me downstairs he apologised and begged me to forgive him,” she testified to prosecutors.
Presiding judge Awad will hand out a ruling on December 27.