Dubai chef tries to jump off building after break up with girlfriend

A 22-year-old cook tried to end his life after his girlfriend broke up with him and refused to return his gifts, court hears.

DUBAI // A cook tried to throw himself from the fourth floor of a Discovery Gardens building after his girlfriend broke up with him and refused to return his gifts, a court heard.

Prosecutors told the Misdemeanours Court that on the morning of May 8 this year, KD, a 22-year-old from China, went to the fourth floor of his girlfriend's apartment building and tried to throw himself off - but was stopped by a security guard.

The security guard called police and the cook was arrested. The cook said during interrogation that he visited his girlfriend CQ, 19, after she failed to answer several of his calls. "I barged into her flat without even knocking and asked her why she ended the relation," said the cook.

She told him that the relationship was not meant to be and told him to leave her apartment. When he asked her to return some gifts he had given her she said she had given them to a store in the Mall of the Emirates.

He then asked her to leave her flat so they could talk, but when she did so he snatched the door keys from her hand and told her she could only get them back if she retrieved the gifts.

The girlfriend called security guards but the cook ran off. The guards found him on a balcony in the hallway, about to throw himself off.

"He was furious and resisted fiercely," said FA, the 29-year-old Emirati head of security at the building.

"I'm not happy, I even gave her my ATM card so she could withdraw my money to spend on herself," the cook told his arresting police officers.

The girlfriend, a hotel customer service agent, said she met the cook about 45 days before the incident and that they had been in a relationship.

"But then I told him he was not the one and told him to leave me alone but he kept trying."

She added that he would often call her and sent her many text messages but she would ignore them.

"When he came to my flat, the argument became heated and he threatened to throw me and himself out of a window," said the girlfriend. She added that he had at one point tried to pull her towards the window but that she managed to escape his grip.

The cook denied a charge of attempted suicide. A verdict is expected later this month.