Domestic helper strangles girlfriend to death, Dubai court hears

A domestic helper has gone on trial in Dubai on the charge of strangling his girlfriend to death.

The Court of First Instance was told on Sunday that the 31-year-old Nepali worker was with his compatriot on May 20 in his room at his sponsor's villa in the Emirates Hills.

He strangled the woman and then pushed her, causing her head to hit a sink in the bathroom. He has been charged with murder and having illicit sex. He denied he meant to kill the victim.

The body was found by a Pakistani irrigation worker. "I was doing some gardening work around 6.20am when I found a woman's body. At first, I thought it was plastic. I called security guards and the police arrived later," the 32-year-old witness said.

A Filipino archives clerk, 43, said he spotted the victim entering the villa around 1.30pm from the garbage collection room. "The following day, I heard that a woman's body was found. I went to Al Barsha police station to give a testimony, as told by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers, about what I had seen earlier."

The police apprehended the accused at 11am the next day near the villa after gathering information he had a close relationship with the victim.

"He admitted at the police station the victim was his girlfriend. On that day, she came to the villa and he let her in. They had lunch in his room and then sex. When he was about to leave her there to go about his cleaning duties, she insisted that he stay back to talk to her. He got scared he would have trouble if his sponsor found out about her. He could not talk her into letting him go and she kept insisting that he stay with her," a police corporal said.

As he went to the door, she stood up and grabbed him while yelling at him. "I felt so worried my sponsor would hear her, so I grabbed her by the neck and pressed for three to four minutes," the accused told the police officer.

He then pushed her towards a table but she kept shouting. "I grabbed her again by the neck and dragged her to the bathroom. I pushed her towards the sink and she hit her head and fell down. I carried her to the bed and left."

When he came back to the room later, he found her lifeless. He carried her body on his back and used a ladder to dispose of it outside the villa.

The defendant led the police to his closet, where he had hidden the victim's belongings.

According to the forensic report, the body was discovered and examined less than one day after the crime.

mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai

Marie Nammour

mary@khaleejtimes.com