Manager accused of molesting shopper

A Turkish manager allegedly followed a woman to a parking area and molested her, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.

The incident took place on November 8, 2015, when 40-year-old, Austrian housewife, NG, finished her shopping in Ibn Battuta mall.

As NG headed to a cashier, a man approached her and offered to help.

"I replied to him saying, 'No I do not need a help' and headed to my car in the parking lot. As I was putting my purchases in the boot, the same man came and asked me if I want to meet him. I said to him, 'No, I am married' and asked him to go away. He stayed in his place, so I stepped (aside) to get into my car. All of a sudden he touched me inappropriately. I turned and shouted at him and he ran away," testified the victim.

The woman who was heading to pick her children from school called her husband and told him about the incident.

He asked her to return to the mall and lodge a complaint.

"I returned and complained to the mall's management who offered reviewing CCTV recordings. The victim pointed at her abuser when he appeared in the camera footage. A compliant was also lodged with Dubai Police.

By the end of January, police arrested 48-year-old, NO.

During the identification parade the victim recognised him.

The accused claimed that when he was heading to his car in the parking lot he saw a woman putting her purchases in the car and so he offered to help her. "As she refused, I left the place," he claimed before the prosecutors.

He told investigators that he is a regular visitor to the mall and often offered his assistance to men and women.

The Dubai Prosecution supplied the court with CCTV footage that captured the accused following the women in the mall and waited for her as she got into a pharmacy before heading to the parking lot.

The footage also captured the man approaching the woman as she opened the car's boot and then spoke to her but she did not gave him attention and stayed next to the car. As she stepped to the driver's seat, he was seen rushing towards her, he stayed there for a couple of seconds before running back to the mall.

The Turkish man denied the accusation when brought before the court. The proceedings will reconvene on August 11.

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