Dubai, April 05: A radiography technician molested a woman patient during a test at a local hospital in Muraqqabat, a court heard on Sunday.
The 56-year-old Sudanese national allegedly molested the Emirati student, 19, while alone with her in the radiography room on January 30. He went on trial in the Court of First Instance on the charge of molestation.
The complainant, a 19-year-old student, told the prosecutors that the incident happened during her stay at the hospital.
She was admitted on January 24 and remained there for a week because she was suffering of severe pneumonia. She was on a wheelchair as she could not walk. Earlier, she had had an X-Ray test which was done by a Filipino. When she went in to undergo the second X-Ray test, an Emirati woman employee told her to seek help from the defendant as she was busy. “He pushed the wheelchair and led me into the Radiography Room,” she said. In her statement during the investigation, she claimed that the defendant asked her to take off her abaya and head dress. He would not take her no for an answer and kept insisting until she took them off. “He was helping me prepare for the test and adjusting my posture when he touched and groped me,” she alleged.
When she asked him about what he was doing, the technician claimed that he was helping her get ready and adjust properly for the test.
“He then said he was sorry and that he was like my brother or father,” the student recounted. When they moved into the room to check the results on the computer she kept a distance of few meters away from him.
“However, he was coming closer when showing me the pictures on which he said that my left lung had still infection,” she added. It was then that she was shocked by him pulling her closer, hugging her, kissing her head and asking her about her studies.
When she pushed him away and sat on her wheelchair he allegedly touched her again, kissed her on her cheeks and lips. Still in a state of shock the student pushed him away while he was saying that it was normal and that he was like her brother or father. He later said he was sorry.
As she was ill and could not speak, she did not scream or call for help until she went out of the room.
Before she walked out, the technician allegedly made her say that she forgave him ‘until the Judgement Day’.
However, she went out later and complained about him and called the police. An Arab woman who works at the hospital told the prosecutors that the defendant used to work at a Sharjah hospital but had to quit because of some problem. She mentioned that he heard some talk about his strange behaviour.
–Agencies