DUBAI// A seven-year-old boy used a letter opener to defend himself from being molested by an employee of his father, the Dubai Criminal Court has heard.
M M, 27, an Indian domestic worker, denied a charge of sexual assault when he appeared in court on Sunday. “I was just playing with him,” he said.
The court heard that on October 20 last year, the Pakistani boy was at his father’s company, where he spent Mondays because his mother was away on business.
The boy said M M pulled him to the corner of an office, forced him to sit in his lap then touched his private parts.
“I told him to stop but he didn’t, so I asked two men in the office to help but they didn’t give me much attention,” said the boy.
The boy grabbed a letter opener that was on a desk and stabbed M M in the finger.
The defendant let go of the boy and the two colleagues noticed something was going on.
“M M came back and tried to take the blade from me. I told him I will cut him again if he touched me,” said the boy.
While travelling home, the boy he told his father, R A, 39, that this was not the first time M M had tried to touch him.
R A said: “On that day he was angry as we were heading home and he asked me to beat M M because he does bad things. I asked him to explain so he told me,” said the father.
The next day he went to office and checked CCTV cameras, where he found evidence of his son’s claims.
“I saw M M on camera touching my son when no one was looking. When I showed him the recordings he was stunned because he did not know there was a camera,” said the father.
M M insisted he was only playing with the boy.
“But I told him this is not considered play when you touch a boy like that. It’s called molestation,” said R A.
A verdict is expected on March 10.
salamir@thenational.ae