Cleaner accused of molesting 11-yr-old boy

dubai — A cleaner faced trial on Tuesday for allegedly molesting an 11-year-old boy in the building where he lived.

The 39-year-old Indian cleaner is accused of touching the boy at least three times against his will. He denied the charge when he was brought before the Court of First Instance.

The boy’s father, a 42-yearold Jordanian employee, said that he was at work around 4pm on July 14 when his wife called him and asked him to go home promptly. “She told me that the building’s cleaner sexually harassed our son,” the father said.

“My son then told me that he was with his cousin at the building’s pool when the cleaner came and grabbed him by the hand. The other kid got scared and ran to watch what was happening from behind a door. The cleaner told my son to sit on a chair while my son was trying to go but he did not let him leave. He touched him inappropriately.”

The father added during the prosecution investigation that he learned from his son that it was not the first time the cleaner touched him. “The defendant had done the same before when he saw my son in the corridor in the building and while he was riding his bicycle.”

The police brought the boy, his father and the accused to the police station after receiving the complaint.

“We were informed about an incident of sexual harassment at a building in the Tecom area in Jebel Ali at 7.30pm,” said a police sergeant.

The sergeant heard from the boy that the cleaner stopped him on that day and touched him. The boy said it was not the first time he was stopped and harassed by that man.

The court will pass a verdict on December 6.