Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance on Wednesday acquitted a South African English teacher of molesting and sexually abusing a boy inside a classroom.
The Abu Dhabi government schoolteacher stood trial after an Arab boy complained to his father that the suspect touched him inappropriately and drew sexually explicit sketches of a man and a woman on the blackboard.
The presiding judge of the criminal court dismissed the case, citing lack of evidence. The suspect’s lawyer argued that the boy levelled these allegations after he was divested of the class monitor’s role.
The Public Prosecution had charged the teacher with molesting the child and the suspect pleaded not guilty during a previous hearing.
The boy told the prosecution that his English teacher first drew nude pictures of men and women on the blackboard, then he came to his seat and molested him.
The boy’s father filed a complaint against the English teacher and said the suspect tried to hold him back in the classroom when he wanted to go out after the incident. During a previous hearing, the defence lawyer told the court that the Public Prosecution failed to produce any solid evidence against his client. There were more than 20 students in the classroom at the time when the alleged incident took place but no witnesses were produced in the court, the lawyer told the judge.
