A four-year-old girl who was sexually abused by a cleaner in her building feared her mother wouldn't let her play outside if she told her of the abuse, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Thursday.
Records show that on January 17, the cleaner – A 24-year-old Nepalese man – dragged the Emirati girl by her arm into an empty flat as she was returning home and sexually abused her.
"She only informed me of what happened a day after," the girl's mother, 48, told prosecutors.
"She aid she felt hungry and was coming home to eat when the man suddenly pulled her from the arm," the woman said, adding that her daughter usually plays in the park under their apartment building in Al Muraqqabat.
The mother said her daughter was crying on the day of the incident but would not explain why. The girl told her mother she had several nightmares the night of the incident.
The following day, the girl told her mother what happened, saying she did not tell her sooner because she feared she would not be allowed to got out and play again.
"She told me that the man grabbed her arm and asked her to go with him but she told him that she was taught not to go with strangers after which he grabbed her by force," said the mother, who called police.
Police checked CCTV footage and saw both the defendant and the child near the apartment at the time of the incident but the cameras, which were not directed at the main door of the apartment, did not catch whether or not the defendant led the girl inside the flat.
The defendant was arrested and allegedly admitted to sexually assaulting the girl during police and prosecution questioning. However, in court on Thursday, the man denied the charge.
He will receive his verdict on March 12.
