Jokey engineer palms wrong woman

DUBAI: A company engineer, in the habit of tapping an amenable secretary unwittingly did it to the wrong woman, the Criminal Court heard on Monday.

The Arab man, 39, was hauled into the court for having walked behind a Filipina cleaner, 32, and gave her an offensive slap around 3am on Mar.27, she complained to the Bur Dubai Police Station.

“Never,” he argued. His lawyer argued that the case was concocted. The secretary showed up and said, “He never did anything wrong to me, and I never saw him doing anything wrong to the cleaner.” In prosecution records, the cleaner had bent to refill a water container at a fridge in the company’s corridor. The defendant walked behind her and gave her an offensive loud slap with his left hand.

She shouted and cried while asking him why he did that. He responded “nothing.” A Filipina civil engineer, 34, confronted him about the sexual harassment act. The cleaner walked to the kitchen crying.

The cleaner said, “He slapped me thinking I was J (the secretary).” The civil engineer said, “She was refilling water when he struck her. I confronted him and he argued that he thought she was J.

“And that he did not apologise to her because he had been friends with J for long. He then walked away. I went to the kitchen and found the cleaner crying. She asked me to contact the police.”

The victim’s compatriot workmate, 30, said she also spotted the defendant committing the crime. “The cleaner screamed and I saw the civil engineer telling the defendant off,” explained the Filipina workmate.

She added, “J told me the defendant habitually joked with her and sometimes slapped her from behind. This time he slapped the cleaner’s back thinking it was J.” The ruling will be on June 28.