Sentence upheld in molestation case

A 58-year-old private teacher convicted of molestation has had his three-year sentence upheld. The man reportedly sexually abused two minor girls, aged 10 and 7, while they were getting private tuition from his wife. 

The classes were conducted at the couple’s house in Muharraq. During his wife’s absence, the husband reportedly taught them.  The man was referred to trial after the mother of the two victims filed a complaint against him in police, alleging that he had sexually assaulted her children.

“My children suddenly have become reluctant to attend private classes. I thought they were developing lazy habits,” the mother of the victims told prosecutors. “Despite my pressure they didn’t go. Then I began surveying their phones as I was curious about their refusal,” she added.

“I found several voice messages on my elder daughter’s phone. She received them from a friend. They were discussing the sexual abuses they suffered at the hands of their private teacher’s husband (the defendant) in the message. When I asked her she told me that in the absence of their female teacher, and they were taught by her husband. But he also misbehaved with them by groping their private parts,” the mother added.

His lawyer Fatima Al Hawaj earlier denied that her client groped the two girls.  She claimed that the victims “let their imagination go wild” after watching television programmes and surfing the Internet.