Cleaner molests child while her grandmother is in another room

Dubai: A cleaner stood trial in the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday on charges of sexually abusing and performing an indecent act with a five-year-old girl.

The Nigerian girl was lying down on a sofa at a hotel apartment in Deira where she lives with her family. Her parents had left her with her grandmother, when the Pakistani cleaner sought permission to clean the apartment.

The girl’s grandmother took her two siblings into another room. By the time, she returned to check on the girl, the cleaner had left the apartment. The girl, who rushed to the bathroom to wash her mouth, told her grandmother that the cleaner had kissed her and touched her in an inappropriate way.

The grandmother promptly alerted the father who called Dubai Police.

A police patrol headed to the building and apprehended the cleaner after an on-site investigation.

Prosecutors accused the 21-year-old Pakistani defendant of molesting the minor girl by kissing and touching her.

The grandmother told prosecutors that she came to Dubai in November last year to be with her daughter and her kids. She said her daughter had just delivered a boy. On the day of the incident, her daughter and son-in-law had gone to Ajman to scout for an apartment.

“It was 6pm, the defendant told me that he needed to clean the apartment. I allowed him to enter and took two of my grand children into a room. My grand daughter, 5, was on the sofa. After 20 minutes, I came out to check on her and the defendant had fled leaving the door open. My granddaughter was terrified and ran to the bathroom. She was cleaning her mouth and told me that the cleaner had kissed her and touched her body,” the 54-year-old grandmother said in her statement.

The grandmother summoned the cleaner who denied touching the girl.

In court, the cleaner told prosecutors that he touched the girl’s bottom and chest while she was lying on the sofa.