Dubai tourist ‘uses cover of Haunted Hotel to sexually assault two women’

Two Emirati women say they were groped by the Pakistani defendant under cover of darkness at the IMG Worlds of Adventure attraction.

DUBAI // A tourist used the darkness of IMG Worlds of Adventure’s Haunted Hotel to molest two young women, a court has heard.

The two Emirati women, aged 18 and 22, walked into the dark corridors of the attraction on September 24 last year and noticed two men walking behind them, prosecutors said on Sunday.

“I asked him and his friend to walk in front of us but he insisted on us being in front of them,” said one of the young women, an 18-year-old student.

“Then as we walked, the defendant bumped into me from the back and stuck his body to mine.”

A few minutes later, she thought her friend grabbed her by the shoulder but she then realised that it was the Pakistani defendant, 28.

“I didn’t say anything to him,” she said. “I was scared he would do something far worse since we were in the middle of the place but he then started touching me all over my body and pressing against me from the back.”

Her friend, 22, said she was also sexually assaulted by the man and when they left the Haunted Hotel, they both started screaming at him.

“We reported him at once,” said the second woman.

The darkness in the attraction meant that a surveillance recording revealed nothing apart from the two women screaming at the man.

At Dubai Criminal Court on Sunday, the defendant denied a sex assault charge.

A verdict is expected on March 14.