A member of the UAE military is accused of obtaining sexual pictures of a child through social media and using them to blackmail the child into sexual acts, Dubai Criminal Court heard.
Prosecutors told the court that the Emirati man, 33, had been arrested after an Emirati boy, 17, came forwarded and lodged a complaint.
He said that he had been threatened and blackmailed by the accused after sharing pictures with him on social media.
"I met him on Snapchat last year and we started exchanging pictures of a sensitive nature. Then he disappeared for a while, and when he contacted me again he asked that we meet," said the teen.
When they met, the accused allegedly blackmailed the teen into performing sexual acts on him by threatening to show his family the pictures, which he had saved on his mobile device.
The meeting place was not disclosed in records.
"He threatened to post my pictures online and even send them to my family, but what really scared me was that he knew information about my family. So I gave in and did what he wanted," said the teen.
"He showed me several clips of other teens and children who he said he had done the same thing to – lured them in on social media, convinced them to send their pictures before using the pictures to threaten the youngsters and abuse them sexually."
Following the sexual acts, which were not elaborated on in records, the accused allegedly continued to blackmail the teen, asking for money. |
"I paid him Dh400 but realised that he would keep doing this, so I decided to go to the police," said the teen.
He filed a police report on June 9 and records showed that the man had a criminal record for a similar crime in 2012.
Investigators found the accused to be in the possession of three mobile phones and seized them. More than 3,000 images of a pornographic nature, 250 indecent clips involving children and hundreds of other images and chats of sexual content were found on them.
In court, the accused denied charges of sexual assault and threatening to defame a juvenile by posting indecent images of him online.
He was additionally charged with posting pornographic content on Snapchat, which he also denied.
A verdict will be issued on November 14.