DUBAI // A man walking his pet monkey while under the influence of drugs beat his neighbour to death in a row over a barmaid.

The 31-year-old Emirati kicked the victim to the ground, bit his nose and poured sand in his mouth before leaving him to die.

“Yes, I did it,” he told the Criminal Court heard yesterday.

The Emirati said he was walking his monkey past his neighbour’s house in Rashidiya on July 16 when the neighbour called his name. “He told me to stay away from his girlfriend, who worked at a bar.”

The neighbour challenged him to a fight, he said. “Let’s meet head-to-head, he told me. I agreed and we headed to a nearby place.”

The man said he was tying his monkey to a pole when his neighbour “took me by surprise” and slashed his head with a razor blade.

He said the neighbour sprayed sand into his face and poked him in the eye.

“I punched him in the face and kicked him around so he fell. Then I bit his nose and put some sand into his mouth,” the Emirati said.

The neighbour then had difficulty breathing. “He asked me to bring him some water, so I got some from a nearby house and helped him to drink it,” said the Emirati.

The neighbour’s condition deteriorated, so he took his monkey and fled.

“I told my brother to inform [the neighbour’s] family that we had a fight and that I assaulted him,” the Emirati told the court.

The neighbour’s brother said he received a call at about 10pm telling him to go to Abdulla Bilal railing, where the fight had taken place.

“[The Emirati’s brother] told me he called the rescue services because my brother stopped breathing after his brother beat him up,” said AS, 31.

The victim’s body was taken to Rashid Hospital and police found blood stains, a man’s gown and a bottle of water at the scene of the fight.

Officers went to the Emirati’s house and he gave them the dead man’s wallet and mobile phone.

A forensics expert said the cause of death was concussion and internal bleeding in the head.

The Emirati admitted charges of assaulting the safety of his neighbour while under the influence of drugs, and of assault that led to death.

A verdict is expected on November 27.

salamir@thenational.ae