The photo has been used for illustrative purposes only.

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A habitual drinker ended up raping a woman he was planning to marry, a court heard on Sunday.

The unemployed Arab defendant, 36, breached the honour of the Moroccan woman – a sales executive, 37 — inside his apartment at around 1:30am on July 28. He clutched her and seized her mouth, she complained.

She reported him to the Rashidiyah Police Station. During police and prosecution interrogations, the defendant allegedly admitted to have had an encounter with her. The Dubai Criminal Court set Oct.30 for the verdict.

In prosecution records, the defendant befriended her after several visits to her workplace at a shop inside a mall. He proposed to marry her. She agreed provided he travelled to her homeland and met her parents.

Their relationship became unstable as she kept demanding him to stop drinking. They broke up. He later WhatsApped her and relentlessly apologised. He visited her flat and asked her to follow him and have supper.

She thought he was taking her to a restaurant as usual. He rather took her to his flat in Al Warsan. He had prepared supper. He harassed her and asked her whether she ever met anyone, and whether she loved him.

She told him she accepted to marry him if he went to her homeland and had an official marriage as earlier agreed. After supper, he abused alcohol until he was too intoxicated. He turned against her and harassed her.

He tried to sexually assault her. When she foiled his advances he punched her right cheek. She tried to escape outside the flat but he stopped her. They brawled as he offended her until 6am. He fell asleep until 1:30pm.

He tried to talk her into forgiving him. “I was upset and traumatized,” she said. He transported her to her workplace. She returned home and sat recalling the nightmarish attack. She resolved to report him to the police.