Cell horror after one drink

A MUM has told how she was spat at and feared she would be raped after being caged in a filthy Dubai jail.

Dr Ellie Holman, 44, was locked up for three days with four-year-old daughter Bibi for drinking wine. She was challenged at Dubai airport over a visa and started filming an immigration officer who became aggressive. When she admitted drinking a glass of wine with her flight meal, she was arrested for consuming alcohol, swearing at an official and illegally filming. Ellie said: “Someone spat at me and they were pulling at my hair.

“I was terrified and crying. Bibi was behind me and she was crying.”

The frightened pair were driven to prison and locked in a cell with four bunks. The toilets were just holes in the ground and Ellie said the cell was “hot and foul smelling”.

Ellie added: “I didn’t know how long I would be in prison, but I had to be strong for Bibi and not show that I was afraid.

“A pregnant woman told me how she had been raped in the prison. I feared it could happen to me, but thankfully with Bibi with me all the time nothing occurred.”

After three days, mum and daughter were released but Iranian-born Ellie was kept under house arrest for another month.

Her distraught fiancé Gary took Bibi back to her siblings Noah, eight, and Suri, nine, at their home in Kent.

Ellie has pledged to avoid the state, saying: “I used to love going to Dubai to see friends, but I will never go back.”