Frenchman was seen filming up women’s skirts in Dubai mall, court hears

Prosecutors said Frenchman taped a small camera to the bottom of a paper bag and used it to film women wearing short skirts.

DUBAI // A man taped a small camera to the bottom of a carrier bag so that he could stand close to women wearing short skirts in a shopping mall and take indecent photos, the Dubai Criminal Court was told on Monday.

H  R, 39, an operations manager from France, was spotted using the camera on May 8 last year by a shop’s supervisor at Mall of the Emirates and he reported him to a mall security guard.

“I spotted him standing so close to a woman wearing a short skirt then saw him placing a paper bag carefully between the woman’s legs from behind,” said Pakistani supervisor K S, 26.

“I felt it was strange and kept looking and I saw him do the same to another woman standing near the first one and also wearing a skirt.”

The supervisor reported the man to a security guard. “The guard then went to the man and asked him what he was doing,” said the supervisor.

“I saw him, as the guard was walking towards him, picking up the bag and taking a small object from its bottom then hiding it in his pocket.

“The guard saw him too. I heard the guard asking him about the object he hid in his pocket, then saw the man handing the guard a small camera.”

H R, who denied the sexual assault of several women, said: “I have never done this and I did not see any of these pictures in my camera. I have never taken such pictures.”

A Dubai Police forensics report said the camera had obscene pictures of women, 23 deleted files of similar photos and 22 others of an obscene nature.

The report also found 293 deleted photos of women in public places, some of which were of women’s intimate parts and others were of women walking around.

Prosecutors said the Frenchman confessed during investigations to filming women without their knowledge.

The case was adjourned until November 27.