DUBAI // A driver's one-year jail sentence for molesting a seven-year-old boy more than 15 times in one month was upheld on Wednesday by the Dubai Court of Appeal.
The Pakistani attacker, M H, 30, would drive his British sponsor's son to school and took advantage of being alone in a car with him, repeatedly putting his hand in the boy's trousers, despite his refusal.
In July at the Dubai Criminal Court, the driver denied touching the boy inappropriately and claimed he had touched him only once, as a joke.
“When I was driving him, once he told me he had a girlfriend, so I laughed and, as a joke, touched his groin – that’s all,” said the driver.
The boy insisted the driver had touched him on numerous occasions and asked him to stop, but he was ignored.
Another worker in the household, P T, 32, from India, noticed the boy’s behaviour change in May, at about the time of the abuse.
“He became reluctant to take showers and his mood was always bad,” she recalled.
The woman said that on May 25 she saw the boy siting on the toilet and that he appeared upset.
“I started joking with him and tickled his belly but he asked me not to do that again because the driver did it to him all the time,” she said.
The boy then told her that the man had touched him sexually.
“He told me that one time he moved to the back seat to stop the driver from touching him,” she added.
P T reported the matter to police and in July the driver was sentenced to a year in jail followed by deportation. The deportation was also upheld.
salamir@thenational.ae