Driver jailed for molesting 2 school kids in Dubai

Dubai - He also undressed in front of a 7-year-old girl while driving her back from school.

A private driver convicted of molesting two schoolgirls and behaving indecently with them in Dubai has had his 10-month jail term upheld on appeal. The 39-year-old Pakistani driver was accused of molesting an 11-year-old Azerbaijani girl and showing her an inappropriate video clip. He also undressed in front of a 7-year-old Canadian girl while driving her back from school.
A complaint was filed on June 24, 2019, at Al Barsha police station. Investigators had found several photos of children, some of which could be relevant to the case, stored on his phone. It also contained clips downloaded from a porn site, according to a report from the general directorate of criminal evidence and forensics.
On October 3 last year, the Court of First Instance sentenced the defendant to six months in jail on the molestation counts. It also sentenced him to four months in jail on two counts of doing an immoral act with a female (two months for each count). After he challenged the verdict, the Dubai Court of Appeals upheld the verdict.
The convict will be deported at the end of his prison term.
The first victim, who is now 15, told the public prosecution investigator that the incident took place about four years earlier. "I was with my then 9-year-old brother sitting in the back. The driver asked me to sit in the front, but I did not move. The accused driver later showed me a porn clip."
A year later, she was with the defendant alone in the car when he touched and kissed her. He repeated it on several occasions. She told her parents after the other victim told her family. "He would pull himself towards me and do that when the car was parked. He would also pat me inappropriately at the school," she recalled.
Her mother said the defendant worked as a driver at her company. "He used to drop my children to school. I learned from my daughter that she did not tell us about the driver's behaviour because she felt scared. She began shaking and crying when she heard me talking about him with her father. Later, she told me what he did."
The second victim, who is now 9-years-old, told the prosecutor that two years earlier the defendant took his pants down while driving her back home from school. "The next day, he tried to kiss me on the cheek but I pushed him away."
The verdict has been challenged at the Court of Cassation and a hearing date is scheduled for January 20.
mary@khaleejtimes.com
 

• Dubai