Barber jailed for three months after groping schoolgirl in lift

The man touched the teenager's breast in lift at her building as she made her way home from school.

DUBAI // A 30-year-old barber will spend three months behind bars after he was convicted of molesting a teenage girl in a lift as she arrived home from school.

On November 11 last year Indian 17-year-old V S entered the lift in her building and N O, also from India, joined her in the lift then touched her breast.

He denied a sexual assault charge when he appeared at Dubai Criminal Court last month.

The schoolgirl said: “I got off the bus at 2.50pm then got into the lift in our building in Al Qusais, and so did he. There were only the two of us inside. He asked me how I was doing but I didn’t answer him.”

She added that N O came closer and touched her breast, so she pushed him but he tried to touch her again.

“The door opened so I ran out and hurried to my mother at our house and told her what happened,” said the pupil.

Her 55-year-old mother, A D, testified that when her daughter returned from school she was crying.

“Her father opened the door for her and she ran to me in my bedroom and told me what happened,” said the mother, who asked the building’s security guard to show her CCTV footage. She saw N O follow her daughter into the lift, after which the mother called police.

During questioning, prosecutors said N O told them he did not live or work at the building, nor did he know any of its tenants. They said N O went there with the intention of carrying out the assault after seeing the girl.

The man was found guilty and will be deported after serving his jail term.