Crane operator molests 7-year-old, court hears

dubai — A 51-year-old crane operator was charged in court on Monday with molesting a boy, 7, after luring him away.

Prosecutors accused the Pakistani man for luring the Indian boy away from where he was playing with his friends to his work site (where he was operating on a crane) and then kissing and hugging him against his will.

The accused denied the charge in the Court of First Instance. The complaint was filed on January 3.

He admitted the charge during the investigation claiming it was how they kiss back home. “I did not mean anything wrong and the boy was like my son,” he claimed to investigators.

The boy said he was playing with his friends at 4:30pm when a man — the defendant — told him to come behind the trees. There the man hugged and kissed him twice on each of his forehead, cheeks and lips while hiding behind the crane. He let him go after telling him not to tell anybody.

The boy continued playing and then went back home where after washing his face and hands vigorously with soap, he told his mother, who insisted on knowing what was wrong.

“Right after we received the complaint, we went to the International City. The boy, accompanied by his parents, led us to the yard where the incident happened. We arrested the accused about two hours later when he came back to the crane,” a policeman said.

The accused was then taken to Al Rashidiyah police station but the boy was unwilling to identify the defendant as he started feeling scared and unwell because of what had happened. The worker will be sentenced on February 27.