(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) A father found out that his former driver was sexually abusing his 13-year-old son only when the latter received a WhatsApp message from the man in front of him, the Court of First Instance was told.
The Emirati complainant, a manager, told the prosecutors that he had just came back from Jordan in September, 2015, to spend the holidays with his family when he realised by chance what had been happening to his son. "I was with him at the Dubai International Airport when he walked away to receive a phone call. He said it was a friend but I noticed he became embarrassed." The father took his son's phone which at that moment received a WhatsApp voice message. "I heard a man talking in broken English. I checked the phone and saw other such messages from the same sender." The father learnt from his son that it was the driver (a 26-year-old Pakistani) they hired for a short time about five months ago. "I kept asking my son about the reason he was still in contact with the man until he told me what happened." The boy told his father that the driver was giving him and his friends rides to malls and wherever they needed, and then sexually abusing him when he remained alone in his car. The driver filmed the boy nude during the assault and began blackmailing him to keep seeing him or he would circulate the photos among his friends. "He was seeing my son and other teenagers even though he was not working for me anymore. He would buy them cigarettes and lure them with rides as they were minors. He would then sexually harass my son and he might have done the same to other boys," the father told Al Barsha police when he reported the accused. He pointed out that his son did not fully confide to him and to his mother about what the driver did to him until they told him he would be examined by a forensic expert. "He became worried when he heard about the examination. He told us that the accused had been threatening him with his nude photos. He said the man used to come to our house and push him to go out with him under threats of exposing him." The forensic report showed the boy was sexually assaulted. DNA tests could not be made because he was referred more than two weeks after the last alleged incident. When the driver was summoned to the police station on November 25, last year, he would not give the password of his locked phone. However, audio and visual recordings taken from the defendant's mobile phone are used as evidence in the case. In one voice note sent by the victim to the defendant, he could be heard telling him it was the last time he would come pick him up. The driver faced charges of sexual assault, making criminal threats and blackmailing. The next hearing will be held on August 25.
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