Delivery man 'tried to rape' customer, Dubai court hears

DUBAI // A restaurant worker tried to rape a customer after delivering her breakfast, a court heard today.

RW, a 25-year-old Syrian chef, was delivering the food to a married woman in Mirdiff at about 10.30am on May 27 this year when the woman's cat ran out of her apartment, heard the Dubai Criminal Court.

The delivery man gave chase to the cat and caught it before stepping inside the woman's house to return the animal.

However, the married woman, GM, said that while inside her house he chased her around and attacked her before throwing her on the bed and trying to rape her.

She said that the man tried to hug and kiss her and put his hand over her mouth to stop her screaming, but she managed to escape and reported the attack to police.

When police went to the Syrian restaurant in Al Ittihad Mall where the man worked, he told arresting officers that he was seduced by the woman's revealing clothes. He also claimed to have been "seduced" by pornographic images he saw in the woman's house.

He said he asked for a glass of water before slipping into the woman's bedroom. He said that when he approached the woman she scratched him in the neck and began to scream, so he told her to calm down and said he would leave her apartment.

He denied trying to rape the woman.

A date for the next hearing was not announced.

salamir@thenational.ae