Dubai: An airport cleaner has been accused of locking up a Dubai girl inside the washroom and inappropriately touching her body.
The Dubai Court of First Instance heard 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 happened.
“Before boarding the airplane, my daughter went to the bathroom. I couldn’t escort her as I was standing beside our luggage. She came back after five minutes but she was terrified. She told me someone touched her body and pointed to the cleaner,” the mother said in official records.
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.
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,” said a police officer in 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 in the case is expected on August 27.
