Lifeguard Gets Jail Term For Molesting Two Girls

DUBAI - The Court of First Instance sentenced a 25-year-old Pakistani lifeguard to six months in jail followed by deportation for molesting two girls at the swimming pool of a local hotel.

The court also fined two of the hotel’s managers Dh 1,000 each for failing to report the molestation incident despite being aware of it.

The mother of the two girls, a Jordanian, told the Public Prosecution that a few days after they had checked in at the hotel in Muraqqabat, their daughters were reluctant to go to the swimming pool. “I heard them whispering to each other.” When she asked her daughters to speak up about what they were whispering, her daughters said that they were afraid to do so. But after hearing their story, once the daughters did confide , she said she immediately went and confronted the hotel’s reception desk.

When the mother confronted the staff on duty with what her daughters had told her about the molestation, the lifeguard denied any such incident has happened. But the Indian hotel manager did take the lifeguard aside and slapped him on his face. He also asked another staff member to take the lifeguard outside and then to cancel his residence visa.

Later, the manager showed the mother a piece of paper mentioning that the lifeguard’s services had been terminated and asked her whether this prompt action would suffice to which she said no. Instead, she insisted that the manager must call in the police.

About an hour hour later she received a call from the reception. When she went down a second manager (a Syrian), who was with the Indian manager, asked her not to call in the police saying that there was no point in it. But the mother did call the Muraqqabat police later to report about the molestation of her two daughters.

The two girls confirmed in their statements during the investigation that the lifguard had indeed touched them and kissed the younger sister while the other one pushed him and ran away.