The Criminal Court sentenced the maid to six months in prison to be followed by deportation.

Amir Al Sunny, Staff Reporter

FUJAIRAH: The Court of Appeal in Fujairah has sentenced an African housemaid to three months in jail to be followed by deportation over sexually harassing a child.

The convict who was working for a family to care after their daughter had reportedly practised indecent acts with the girl. This had been discovered by the mother who noticed that her daughter was suffering from fatigue and behaving differently. She tried to know the reason behind suffering of her daughter. The latter pointed to the maid when her mother asked her “what is wrong with you?”

The girl’s father instantly lodged a complaint with the police against the maid, who had been arrested and detained to be referred to the Court. But she was cleared of the charge by the Court of First Instance when the medical report denied the girl’s exposure to harassment.

The girl’s father appealed against the judgment demanding to examine her by forensic expert who proved occurrence of harassment.

In another recent case, a penniless runaway maid who sold her two-week-old illegitimate daughter to an undercover cop at Dhs10, 000  failed to win a more lenient penalty.

The African maid, 30, and her compatriot colleague, 28, made use of the baby’s weakness to offer her for sale in breach of her dignity, prosecutors explained. Both denied the charge in court.

The Criminal Court sentenced the maid to six months in prison to be followed by deportation and sentenced the colleague to three months in prison to be followed by deportation. Both appealed.

The Appeals Court cleared the colleague. The colleague had told police and prosecutors that she protested the maid’s decision to sell the baby.

“I escorted her because she was in a bad psychological state.”

In prosecution records, the maid absconded from Abu Dhabi. She worked at different places. A friend told her an Emirati man was searching for a maid to work for a family against Dhs2, 000 monthly.

She accepted to meet him. The man took her to a flat in Umm Al Quwain. They engaged in affairs for around ten days. Thereafter, he handed her Dhs500, chucked her at a street and ordered go away. She delivered in Ajman with her colleague’s help and some advice from a woman abroad. She contacted the man to provide necessary assistance.