A callous rapist who knocked out his friend and recorded himself carrying out the attack has been handed a life sentence.
The 24-year-old Emirati launched a brutal assault on the victim at his home, forcing her into his bedroom before locking the door.
The pair had agreed to meet at his address in International City, Dubai, on June 4, to discuss a problem with a mutual friend but the meeting turned violent as soon as she arrived.
The Egyptian woman, 23, said she thought the defendant was "joking" when he picked her up on carried her on his shoulder soon after she arrived at his home.
“I thought he was joking and I asked him to put me down,” she said, but the accused refused, and instead took her to his bedroom, locked the door and then threw away the key.
She tried to scare him off by pretending to jump from his bedroom’s balcony.
“But he forced me down then hit me with a solid object, slapped me repeatedly, banged my head to the floor, and pulled my hair while kicking me all over my body,” she said.
The woman bit his finger and scratched him in a bid to halt the attack but he continued to beat her and recorded himself as he did so until the woman passed out.
She said he was recording during the ordeal and saying “look how I am beating her”.
He then stripped her naked and raped her twice.
She told prosecutors she was then allowed to leave by the rapist, who then told her how to cover up her bruises.
“As I was stepping out of his room, he whispered in my ear saying that I should leave my hair loose to cover the bruises,” she said.
She alerted police after leaving his apartment.
“We saw bruises on her face and took her to Rashid hospital then documented her statement before we had an arrest warrant issued the same day,” said an Emirati policeman.
The defendant was arrested by police at his residence.
During questioning, he refuted the woman’s claims and said that they had consensual sex.
He denied two counts of rape and charges of making recordings of both attacks when he first appeared before Dubai Criminal Court in August.
But he was convicted of all charges at his latest court date and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The defendant has the right to appeal the sentence.
