Man 'raped girl, 15, he met on internet'

Man, 36, denies raping a 15-year-old girl he met on the internet.

DUBAI // A man who admitted having sex with a 15-year-old he met on the internet yesterday denied it was rape, telling a court: "She can't pretend to be decent now, seven men had sex with her before I did."

Z?G, from Jordan, told Judge Maher Salameh at the Dubai Criminal Court that the girl, S?J, an Emirati, asked him to have sex with her.

The girl told prosecutors she met him online and he had pretended to be a female pupil called Mimi who attended the same school.

She said he asked her to send him pictures of herself and she did so, thinking he was a girl. After she sent them, he told her he was a man and threatened to post the photos online or send them to her father if she did not have sex with him.

“I agreed to send him more pictures of myself naked because he said that if I did so, he wouldn’t post any pictures,” said the girl.

A few days before Eid Al Adha in November, she let the man into her house and took him to her room.

“He said he wanted to come and delete all my pictures in my presence so I let him into my room,” she said. Instead, he raped her, the girl alleges.

She said he left her room at about 2am. Four hours later she woke up and was rushed to hospital after drinking from a bottle of nail polish remover. She said she mistakenly believed the bottle contained water.

The girl told her uncle what had happened and her family lodged a complaint at Bur Dubai Police Station on November 14.

A forensics report showed the girl had recently had intercourse but DNA traces were insufficient to prove with whom.

The Jordanian, who is on a visit visa, was charged with raping a minor, threatening her and trespassing into her room. The next hearing is scheduled for May 13.