Father discovered sexual assault after overhearing daughter, 13, on the phone, Dubai court hears

Former flatmate of Filipino father is on trial for alleged sexual assault of 13-year-old girl.

DUBAI // A father found out his 13-year-old daughter had been molested by his flatmate after overhearing her talk about intimate details on the phone with a friend, a court heard.

Filipino warehouse supervisor B B, 35, told Dubai Criminal Court on Thursday that he learnt of the alleged assault after hearing his daughter describe to her friend what happens between a woman and a man in a relationship.

He then approached his daughter about the conversation and she broke down in tears, the court was told.

“On October 19 last year I was sitting in the living room when I heard my daughter talking to a friend,” the father said.

“The conversation then turned into detailing the steps of having an intimate relation with a woman. I was shocked because she is too young to know such details.”

The supervisor testified that, after hearing the conversation, he asked his daughter to hang up and sat down with her.

“I asked her about what I heard, so she started crying and then ran to the kitchen and picked up a napkin on which she wrote: ‘I am afraid of what happened in Bur Dubai flat’,” he said.

After a long conversation, the teenager eventually revealed what had happened in their shared apartment in Bur Dubai.

“After several attempts, she finally told me that the defendant, who lived with us then, molested her repeatedly and ordered her not to say anything about it,” said B B, who took his daughter to a psychiatrist at Rashid Hospital. He was then advised to go to police.

The daughter testified that the first time she was sexually assaulted she was returning to the apartment with the defendant, Filipino civil engineer N K, 36, after being at a supermarket.

“He started kissing and touching me inside the lift,” said the girl, adding that two days after the incident her parents were at work when the defendant again molested her.

Police said N K confessed during their investigation, however, at Dubai Criminal Court on Thursday morning, he denied the charge relating to the alleged assaults in March and April, 2012.

The next hearing is on April 3.