Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A man who headbutted a woman for snubbing his advances will serve five years in the dock plus deportation, the Dubai Criminal Court ruled on Wednesday.

The Arab defendant, 33, headbutted the Swedish woman, 33, and broke her nose during a fracas inside a Dubai restaurant at around 3am on June 24, according to the woman’s complaint at the Bur Dubai Police Station.

She underwent surgeries, a medical report showed. She sustained a 15 per cent permanent deformity. The defendant skipped to attend court questioning on Sept.15. He separately faces an alcohol abuse charge.

On the record, the woman went to the restaurant with a female friend. They found the defendant there. He was inebriated. He approached and talked to her in an inappropriate manner. “Are you up for money?” he asked.

She told him not to talk to her in such a way. Meanwhile, she told her friend that they should leave. “I stood up with my mobile in my hand. He pushed my hand and the mobile fell on the ground,” she complained.

“He grasped my arm and struck my nose with his head. I heard something breaking inside the nose.” The defendant’s colleague tried to help her by standing between them to stop the defendant from attacking her.

She experienced excruciating pain and started throwing up as she screamed for police to be called. An ambulance rushed her to hospital. She underwent two surgeries to return the broken nose bone in position. A police warrant officer testified that the defendant upon arrest said that he consumed alcohol then went to the restaurant on Sheikh Zayed Road with a colleague. “I disputed with a woman I found there.

“She started hitting me with her mobile phone. I retaliated by hitting her face with my head,” he contended, adding that clients and restaurant workers broke the fight and called the police. 

The woman told the officer the drunk defendant verbally harassed her. When she ignored him he got disappointed, dragged her towards him and headbutted her face. People kept him at bay.