Burglar who slashed pilot 15 times has sentence reduced to six months

Emirati was originally jailed for two years for using a razor blade on an Irish pilot in a botched burglary but he had his sentence reduced.

DUBAI // A man who broke into a home and slashed his victim’s face with a razor blade won an appeal to have his jail term cut from two years to six months.

The Emirati, 24, and his accomplice, 30, challenged the two-year sentence they received after the perpetrator was convicted of trespassing and physical assault and his accomplice was found guilty of aiding and abetting.

The householder, a pilot, was left with more than a dozen scars on his face after the early morning assault.

The Irish victim heard noises from the kitchen of his home in Al Safa at about 3.30am on December 24 and thought it was his son preparing a snack.

“I headed to the kitchen and saw a masked man holding my wife’s purse, trying to get out of the kitchen door,” said the homeowner, who shouted at the intruder and chased him out into the street, where an SUV was waiting.

“When the driver saw me, he drove off, leaving his accomplice, who fell to the ground, so I grabbed him and we started fighting,” said the pilot.

The Emirati then took out a razor blade and slashed the pilot 15 times before running off. The victim’s daughter called police and an ambulance took her father to Rashid Hospital.

No reason for the reduction in sentence was given.