Dubai resident jailed for filming woman while she took bath

A man, who secretly filmed a woman as she was taking a shower at a staff accommodation in Dubai, has been sentenced to three months in jail. The Dubai Court of First Instance was told that the 21-year-old Indian man, an office assistant, peeped through a small hole in the bathroom wall and filmed the woman with his mobile phone as she took a bath.

The court found the accused guilty of breaching a woman's modesty and privacy and ordered his deportation. He had earlier denied the charge in court.

The incident was reported to Al Rafaa police station on October 10, 2017. "Around midnight, I was in the shower in my accommodation when I suddenly spotted on the mirror the reflection of a man filming me with his mobile phone. I turned around and saw him standing at the small window of his room," the 28-year-old Filipina complainant, a receptionist, said.

She shouted at him and then sought help from friends who were at her place. The receptionist learned later that he worked at the same company but at another branch. She said she did not know whether the accused had filmed her before and she was worried he might have circulated the video clips.

An Indian administration employee at the defendant's workplace said he and another Arab colleague went to the staff accommodation after he got a call at 1am. "The receptionist was crying, and looked scared and angry. We seized the staff's mobile phones, including the defendant's. They all denied filming the woman. But when we told them we would report the incident to the police, the accused eventually admitted he filmed the complainant 'unintentionally' three times and then deleted all the clips without watching them."

The accused admitted during interrogation that he climbed to the small window in his bathroom and used his mobile phone to secretly film the complainant. He claimed he deleted the video clips shortly after she spotted him.