- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 05:07 06:20 12:29 15:54 18:33 19:47
The Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced a cleaner at a school to one year in jail for sexually assaulting students below the age of 14.
The convict, HS, 32, Bangladeshi, who admitted to groping the students’ lower backs and claimed it was only a joke, was also ordered to be deported after serving his jail term.
According to the records, a lecture delivered by Dubai Police to elementary school students about sexual harassment encouraged students who immediately reported about a cleaner’s repeated assaults.
First Corporal Khoder Abdullah delivered a lecture in a school for boys in Hatta as part of security education programme. The lecture entitled “When Do You Say No” targeted students at second elementary class.
“After the lecture I encouraged students for an open discussion and three students told me about harassment by the cleaner HS. They told me that the cleaner used to open the toilet doors using a coin and he used to gaze at their private parts before groping their lower back,” he said.
The policeman informed the school’s principal and the two headed to the washroom and found out that the doors can be opened by a coin.
The school principal made corroborative testimony saying that one of the school’s teachers had suspicion about the cleaner’s misbehaviour as he had seen him one day standing behind a student in a suspicious way.
Corporal Khoder reported the incident to Hatta police station and the officers took immediate action against the cleaner. Police tried to review camera footage in the washroom but they were not working. Other police officers made corroborative testimonies.
Three boys aged seven and eight years old reported that HS had assaulted them. Three others who were older but less than 14 reported that the accused had groped their private parts.
The complainants revealed that the accused had assaulted other students too who did not wish to be identified. Police did not subject the complainant student to forensic sodomy test because they denied such assault and their parents did not want it.
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