DUBAI // Three siblings hit a school bus attendant after he molested their six-year-old brother in front of them, a court heard today.
The bus picked up the four children - two sisters and two brother - on February 12 this year, but shortly afterwards the children, all of whom are under 7, realised they had forgotten to take their daily allowances from their mother.
They asked the attendant AK, 23, from India, if they could get off the bus but he refused. He also refused to let them call their mother, after which the children went to the back of the vehicle.
"He called my brother and asked him to sit next to him but my brother refused," recalled the eldest child, 7. She said the attendant then came to sit with them at the back and touched her sister's cheek and arm. "She pushed him away," said the girl.
The attendant then knocked her brother to the ground. When the brother started to cry the attendant tried to give him a dirham to silence him, but the boy refused to take it.
When the bus arrived at the school and the children tried to get off, the attendant grabbed one of the brothers, forced him into his lap and touched him.
"We returned and hit him," said the eldest sister.
When he appeared at the Criminal Court, the attendant denied a charge of forceful sexual assault.
A verdict is expected on May 8.
salamir@thenational.ae
