A businessman has been accused of tricking a schoolgirl by promising to teach her horse riding and molesting her inside an elevator of a building where she lives.

The 39-year-old Iranian businessman was said to have walked into the lift in the building at Al Barsha when he saw the nine-year-old Syrian schoolgirl in February.

The girl had just finished playing in the games area at 6.30pm and entered the lift wanting to go up home, according to records, when the Iranian man came in as well.

The man was supposed to get off on a floor before the girl, but he remained in the elevator.

He then allegedly asked the girl if she knew how to ride horses and molested her on the pretext of showing her how to sit on a horse.

The girl rushed out of the lift once it stopped at her floor and told her mother about what had happened.

Records showed the mother took her girl down in the lift and once she spotted the Iranian, the girl pointed her fingers at him.

Police were summoned and the man was taken into custody.

Prosecutors accused the suspect of molesting the nine-year-old girl.

The suspect pleaded not guilty and refuted his accusation before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Tuesday.

“I did not touch her,” he told presiding judge Shaikha Hamad.

The girl’s mother testified to prosecutors that her daughter came into the flat and she wanted her brother to accompany her in the lift downstairs.

“She insisted on her brother to escort her to the ground floor … she was yelling. When I stood beside her, I realised that she was scared and her heartbeats were quick. I asked her to change her clothes and told her that I would take her down. When we were in the lift, she told me what had happened and she also imitated what the suspect had done to her. When the lift reached the fifth floor, the door opened. Immediately she pointed her finger at a person [suspect] who was standing there. The suspect seemed petrified … when I asked him if he had touched my girl, he said no. He said that he just taught her how do to an exercise in the lift and apologised if he had done anything wrong. Then I notified the building’s security guards who called the police,” she claimed to prosecutors.

The trial continues.

Source: gulfnews.com