Dubai: A babysitter, who undressed her sponsor’s eight-year-old autistic child and abused him sexually, has been jailed for three years.

The autistic boy’s French mother noticed in April a bizarre change in her child’s behaviour after he became aggressive with her and started touching her lewdly.

The mother also noticed that he had started touching her indecently whenever she was showering him.

The mother realised that her son’s attitude changed after she sacked her 22-year-old Filipina babysitter and sent her back to the agency.

Four days after, she had dismissed the Filipina, the mother spotted her Ethiopian maid crying. When the French woman asked her why, the Ethiopian told her that the Filipina babysitter had repeatedly indulged in sexual activity with her son.

The mother had her son examined at Al Jalila Hospital and was told that he was suffering a negative behavioural change. Then she reported the matter to the police who apprehended the babysitter.

On Wednesday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of abusing the boy sexually by undressing him and allowing him to touch her indecently.

Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi said the accused will be deported.

The defendant pleaded not guilty and contended in court: “I did not touch him or allow him to touch me.”

The French woman said she came to know what had been happening once she saw her Ethiopian maid crying.

“I noticed a behavioural change in my child but I could not establish why. He became constantly angry and interested in touching me inappropriately. That all popped up instantly after I cancelled the defendant’s residency. After I saw the maid crying, she told me that she had seen the accused abusing my child sexually. She told me that the defendant used to undress and make my son interact with her sexually. The Ethiopian said the Filipina threatened to expose that she [maid] was involved in a sexual affair with someone if she ever told me what had happened. The Ethiopian said when she warned the defendant about her bizarre behaviour with my autistic boy, the Filipina took him into a bedroom and locked the doors from inside,” she testified to prosecutors.

The Ethiopian testified that she often saw the accused getting sexually involved with the boy especially when the mother would be abroad.

The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.