Sisters and brother abused by UAE family's maid and gardener

A maid and a gardener sexually abused their employer's three children over a year and threatened to burn them with matches if they told their parents, hears court.

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DUBAI // A maid and a gardener would invite strangers to sexually abuse their employer's three children, a court heard today.

The pair themselves abused the children - two sisters aged 1 and 7 and a brother, 6 - over the course of a year and threatened to burn them with matches if they told their parents what was happening, according to prosecutors.

On one occasion they forced one of the sisters and her brother to strip naked and assume a sexual position. The maid would also invite strangers to her room in the family's house while the parents were away and allow them to sexually abuse the children.

The mother of the children, who are Emirati and aged 1, 6 and 7, said her husband's sister saw a picture of one of the children on the maid's phone and became suspicious.

"When I asked her to hand me the phone to check it, she became scared and refused," said the mother.

"I couldn't sleep that night and in the morning I talked to my son and tried to make tell me if the maid was doing any thing to him," said the mother.

She said the boy then told her the maid had been molesting him. She and her husband then reported the matter to police.

"I continued talking to my children to make them tell and I was devastated with that they told me," she continued.

The mother said that her children were also forced to watch the maid and gardener having sex.

"I did notice redness in my children's behinds but I thought it was because they didn't clean themselves well after using the bathroom and thought it was just lack of hygiene," the mother told the court.

The maid MQ, 35, a Filipina, and gardener AA, 39, from Pakistan, were both charged with sexually assaulting three minors.

Neither was present at the Criminal Court to enter a plea.

The next hearing was scheduled for February 5 to summon the maid and gardener.

salamir@thenational.ae