Dubai: The Dubai Court of First Instance has jailed an airport cleaner for two years for locking up a Dubai girl inside the washroom and inappropriately touching her. The defendant will be deported after serving his sentence.
Records showed that a 31-year-old housewife from Sri Lanka was travelling out of the country with her eight-year-old daughter in November 2019 when the incident occurred. “Before boarding the aeroplane, my daughter went to the bathroom. I couldn’t escort her as I was standing with our luggage. She came back after five minutes and was terrified. She told me someone touched her body and pointed to the cleaner,” the mother said.
A policewoman calmed the girl and spoke to her about what happened. “My daughter said that the cleaner stopped her and asked her to enter the special needs bathroom. He locked the door and touched her body,” the mother added.
Investigation
The 23-year-old Nepali defendant got scared when the girl yelled for help and left the bathroom. The police identified four cleaners who were in the area during the time of the incident with the help of CCTV footage. “One of them admitted that he saw the defendant going outside the bathroom and later the girl came out crying,” a police officer said, according to court records. During interrogation, the defendant admitted to abusing the girl.
Dubai Public Prosecution charged the defendant with kidnapping the girl, locking her inside the bathroom, sexually abusing her and trespassing. The verdict will be subject to appeal within 15 days.
