DUBAI // A plumber has denied molesting a 12-year-old girl while repairing water fittings in her family’s home.
Canadian teacher N K, 37, told prosecutors she called the defendant to her apartment in the Discovery Garden area to carry out some repairs in her bathroom.
“He came on the evening of November 29 last year and asked me to get him a plastic bag,” said N K, who headed to the kitchen to get the bag and left her daughter, N M, with the defendant.
When she went to the kitchen she said her daughter came to her crying. “I asked her what happened and she told me the plumber molested her the moment I got out and left them together,” said N K.
She added that she confronted the defendant who confessed to his wrongdoing and apologised, then asked for her forgiveness.
He had finished his work by then, said N K, who asked the man to leave. “He returned 15 minutes later and rang the bell but I didn’t open for him, then after a while returned and again rang the bell and I didn’t open for him, after which I called the police,” said the mother.
The girl told prosecutors that the man pretended to be washing his hands when he reached for her chest. She said she asked to him to stop but he told her it happened by mistake. “I believed him but when he did it again and from under my shirt, I told my mother although he asked me not to,” the girl said in her testimony.
During prosecution interrogations, the defendant denied a sexual assault charge and said he only hugged her and kissed his own finger then placed it on her cheek as a joke.
Indian M A, 33, awaits a verdict on March 7.
salamir@thenational.ae