Tennis coach loses appeal after being fined Dh2,000 for harassing pupil

The man followed the teenage girl while she was jogging in Al Muraqqabat

Dubai Court originally fined the tennis coach who followed his teenage pupil while she was jogging. AFP

The Dubai Criminal Court has rejected an appeal by a tennis coach who was fined Dh2,000 for harassing a teenage pupil.

On May 29, the coach, from Uzbekistan, followed the girl, 16, from Pakistan, and took her by surprise while she was jogging in a neighbourhood in Al Muraqqabat.

Judges were told he had approached her on his motorbike and grabbed her arm.

“He pulled me towards him and said he wanted to talk to me, so I screamed at him and took a picture of his motorbike number plate,” she told the court.

Despite walking away, the man followed her, so she called her older brother for help, the court heard.

“When my brother came, the accused fled,” the girl said.

She said the coach sent her dozens of messages on Instagram and Facebook telling her he wanted to be her boyfriend but that she needed to lose weight.

“He sent the same messages 10 times a day for several days before I blocked him,” the girl told the court.

The girl, who played tennis at a club in Al Barsha, told her father who reported the incident to the police.

During police questioning, the coach denied the charges and said he met the girl by coincidence while running an errand in the same area.

“She was taking a picture of my motorcycle, so I asked her why and then I noticed she wasn’t paying attention, so I tapped on her shoulder,” the man said.

The court convicted the man of harassing the teenager and fined him on July 28.