Tailor denies molesting 7-year-old schoolgirl

Dubai: A tailor denied in court on Thursday the charge of dragging a 7-year-old schoolgirl up the stairs of the building where she lived and sexually molesting her.

Prosecutors accused the 40-year-old Bangladeshi tailor, A.A., of pulling the Indian girl by force to the stairs that lead up to the first floor before he kissed and groped her private parts.

"No I am not guilty. I didn't do that," said A.A. when he defended himself before the Dubai Court of First Instance.

According to the charge sheet, the tailor was said to have pulled the girl while she was walking down from her school bus. Then he dragged her to the stairs and molested her.

The defendant presented a written waiver from the schoolgirl's father to Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad, who will hand out a verdict on April 23.

The father testified that his wife phoned him while he was at work around 6pm claiming that a stranger molested their daughter.

"I rushed to my residence in Al Qusais. My daughter was crying and disheartened. She claimed to me that the suspect, who worked for a tailoring shop in our building, asked her to go up on the stairs with him to our house. She refused and said that she would use the elevator… then he dragged her forcibly to the stairs. Then he undressed and molested her and he also bit her neck. When she cried, he asked her not to tell anybody about what happened. She informed her elder sister, who told me what happened," the father claimed.

Prosecution records said he took his daughter to the shop where she identified the alleged molester. Police then arrested the defendant.