DUBAI // Two expatriates who had drunken sex on the back seat of a Dubai taxi have had their appeal against their prison sentences turned down by the emirate's highest court.
The Cassation Court upheld their two-month jail terms and Dh2,000 fines, as well as upholding an order that the pair should be deported after completing their jail terms - which they have not yet served.
The pair were originally sentenced to three months in prison and fined Dh3,000 by the Misdemeanours Court, but this was reduced to two months and Dh2,000 by the Appeals Court. The Cassation Court, the highest court in the emirate, upheld the Appeals Court verdict.
They were arrested on May 4 last year after the taxi driver pulled up on Sheikh Zayed Road next to a police patrol and reported them.
The head of the patrol AO, 22, testified that he saw Rebecca Blake, a British recruitment executive, without any underwear on gyrating on top of Irishman Connor McRedmond, whose trousers were around his knees.
The policeman said when he confronted them the woman began to cry and said she wanted to go home.
When they appeared in court, both confessed to drinking alcohol, but denied a charge of consensual sex. Their lawyer Shaker Al Shummari claimed the taxi driver fabricated the story after a disagreement with the pair.
"[The Irishman] had an argument with the driver because he was taking a longer route to get extra money," said the lawyer. He said that when the Irishman told the driver he would report him, the driver stopped near a police patrol and claimed the two were having sex.
The taxi driver QB, 29, from Pakistan, said that the woman tried to bribe him not to report the sexual activity.
salamir@thenational.ae