Cleaner jailed for biting off woman’s tongue

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

An inebriated cleaner who bit off a quarter of a female flatmate’s tongue after she foiled his bid to kiss her was on Thursday jailed for one year.

The African cleaner, 25, dug teeth in the tongue of the Kenyan woman –an employee, 28- inside their shared apartment in Bur Dubai on Jan.24 causing her a 15 per cent permanent deformity, showed a medical report.

When her friends rushed her to hospital, he buried the piece under a tree. Besides the dreadful bite attack, prosecutors additionally accused him of abusing alcohol and molesting the woman by pulling and hugging her.

The Dubai Criminal Court found him guilty and sentenced him to one year behind bars plus deportation over the bite attack and molestation. It sentenced him to one month in prison over illicit consumption of alcohol.

On the record, the woman was in the laundry room when he came asking to use her mobile phone’s torch to search for his shoes in his room. He told her his phone’s battery died and his room’s lamp failed to light up.

He delayed to return. She went to his room, opened the door, walked to his bed and tapped on his shoulder to wake him up. He opened his eyes. She asked him to return her phone.

“What phone are you talking about? I never took any phone from you!” he repeatedly yelled at her. She bent and started searching under the pillow he was reclining on until she landed on the phone.

He grabbed, hugged her and tried to kiss her but she resisted. During the scuffle, he seized her neck and squeezed it. “I nearly lost my breath. I could no longer resist nor move any part of my body because he was squeezing my neck.

“I was trying to shout for help when he suddenly drew closer and bit my tongue with great force,” she complained, adding that he let her and she slumped on the floor. She walked out bleeding profusely.

The defendant sat on his bed looking at her without caring about her or expressing remorse. Two compatriot flatmates – a waiter and his peer – rushed her to hospital in a taxi. The waiter said, “I was sleeping when I woke up to screams.

“I found her bleeding and unable to talk. While in hospital, she told us the defendant bit her tongue. I contacted him and he denied. I went home, confronted him and he took me to a place under a tree where he buried the piece.”