Boy sexually assaulted by hairdresser, Dubai court told



A boy was repeatedly raped by his hair dresser, Dubai Criminal Court was told.

The Egyptian boy, 10, had been living with his father and his wife, following the death of his mother, and had been receiving therapy and counselling since July.
"After eight months of sessions at Al Amal hospital in Dubai, the therapist asked to meet with me to discuss an important issues," said the boy's father, 57.
On February 4, the father met with the psychologist who told him that his son had been raped his the hair dresser several times at his Al Qusais home whenever he was away.
The man said immediately reported the matter to police.
During police questioning, the boy said that whenever his father and wife would go out and leave him and his three siblings, aged between 4 and 12, alone with the defendant, the hair dresser would rape him in his bedroom.
He said he was first sexually assaulted by him in December 2016 when his father called the accused — who works with him at a farming company — and asked him to give his children haircuts and keep them company until he and his wife returned.
"When he arrived, my father and his wife left us alone with him. I was sitting in my bedroom when he came and started chatting with me about school and other things, then he started touching me. I tried to stop him but he was stronger, he then raped me, got dressed and left the room," said the boy in records.
He said he was raped seven more times, most recently in December last year but he was afraid to tell his father. He said that he was sometimes raped while his father was home but in a different room.
The accused, who was arrested on March 22 at Dubai International Airport while trying to leave the country, denied a rape charge in court and claimed that he had been outside of the country at the time of the alleged assault, but he failed to determine which one of the seven.
He told the court that the boy's father dropped charges against him and provided a document to support his claim.
The next hearing is scheduled for July 22.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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