Dubai: A Dubai-based expat family made a horrific discovery after the couple’s daughter wrote a letter to them detailing sexual harassment by a family friend. She wrote the note as part of a school project, police told Gulf News.
In her letter, the girl accused a close family friend of sexually harassing her and said that she was afraid to speak up.
Roudha Al Razooqi, director of Children’s Rights Section at the Human Rights Department of Dubai Police, said the eight-year-old Asian girl was attending an educational session in her school, where she was asked to write a letter to her parents on child safety.
“She wrote a message to her mother that a close family friend had been harassing her since she was five. He is an old man, married but has no children and he was trusted by the parents,” Al Razooqi said.
The girl told police that the molester kept following her even to the bathroom and sitting beside her in family gatherings so he could touch her inappropriately. He warned her against telling anybody about what he did.
The girl wrote in the letter: “Mother, don’t be angry with me but he is touching my body in an inappropriate way.”
The mother read the letter and she was confused and terrified.
In one family gathering, the suspect sat beside the girl and touched her and the girl rejected him and went to her mother asking for help, Al Razooqi said.
The mother called police and registered a case; the suspect has since been referred to the Public Prosecution.
“Parents should educate their children about not allowing anyone to touch them. Look after your child, especially if you notice changes in their mood,” Al Razooqi said.
She advised parents not to confront the suspect themselves in such incidents. Inform the police immediately so that the person could not harm the child, escape or blackmail them, she said.
