DUBAI // A dying woman, who fought back against a burglar as he slit her throat, drew blood that let police identify the attacker, a court heard yesterday.
The burglar had bought a washing machine from her family and returned to their flat a year later, killed the mother then stole her jewellery, the Criminal Court was told.
Prosecutors said the Indian accountant A?M, 28, lay in wait for the woman’s husband and son to leave the Al Raffa flat on September 26 last year.
Armed with a knife and wearing gloves, he knocked on her door and told M?S that he wanted a receipt for the washing machine, the court heard. He asked her for a glass of water and, as she turned her back, grabbed her and cut her throat.
She tried to fight off her assailant and cut his face before she died, prosecutors said.
The defendant rummaged through the Indian couple’s flat and stole valuables before locking the door from outside.
Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to premeditated murder and robbery.
At noon on the day of the killing, a neighbour took the victim’s son home from the school bus stop after she failed to arrive.
The neighbour then called the boy’s father.
“She called me to say that she knocked on my door when my wife did not fetch our son. She said she heard the TV on but no one answered the door,” said the husband, S?F.
He arrived at the flat and found his wife’s body in a pool of blood.
The husband called police, and they found Dh25,000 worth of jewellery was missing.
Police told the court they used samples of blood drawn from the attacker’s face by the dying victim to trace the suspect and arrest him. They said he willingly confessed to the crime.
The arresting officer, K?D, said the accused told him he had been going through financial hardship, and bought the knife, gloves, a small towel and duct tape from a nearby supermarket to carry out his crime.
He said the defendant told him the woman had turned and seen the knife.
He asked her not to shout because he was only there to rob her, but she began to scream so he slit her throat.
“He told me that after the murder and the robbery, he put on one of her husband’s shirts because his was stained with blood,” said the officer.
He claimed the killer had given the stolen items to a friend in Sharjah for safekeeping, telling the friend he had bought them for his sister and feared they would be stolen from his flat.
The next hearing will be on February 21 to assign a lawyer for the accused.
