Dubai: A cleaner has been accused of luring an autistic boy to the pump room of a swimming pool at a gated community and raping him.
The 14-year-old boy was said to have been in the play area in front of his family’s villa in December when the 21-year-old cleaner drew him away, a court heard on Sunday.
Records stated that the suspect gestured to the boy and pulled him into the pump room when he went near him and assaulted him sexually.
Unable to make sense of what had transpired given his autistic condition, the boy, who is Pakistani, only told his mother three days later, records stated.
The mother reported the matter to the police, who apprehended the cleaner.
Prosecutors accused the man of raping the boy.
The suspect pleaded not guilty when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance.
Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal said the court will appoint a lawyer to defend the Indian suspect when it reconvenes on May 15.
The mother testified to prosecutors that she realised that something bad had happened to her son after he started behaving strangely all of a sudden.
“He started getting angry quickly and he was constantly nervous. He also started throwing stuff on the ground; when I took him for lunch, he threw his lunch on the floor. I took him to the car where I had a long chat with him until he told me what had allegedly happened to him; then I called the police,” she told prosecutors.
A policeman told prosecutors about the incident. “The mother claimed during interrogation that she realised that her autistic son was behaving strangely for three days. She alleged that when she asked him what had happened, he responded that the cleaner lured him to the pumps’ room where he removed his dress and had sex with him. Upon questioning the suspect, he alleged that when he saw the boy near the play area, he lured him to the pumps room near the swimming pool area … then he claimed that he asked the boy to remove his dress and he sodomised him. The suspect claimed that the boy did not resist or shout or cry.”
