A British teenager who has been jailed in Dubai over a holiday romance was cleared of rape – but still faces a year in a hellhole prison because his accuser was two weeks shy of her 18th birthday.
Marcus Fakana says he enjoyed a holiday romance with the 17-year-old girl at the Hilton Dubai Palm Jumeirah – but her mother reported him to the authorities after finding birth control pills in her daughter’s luggage.
It is not clear whether the accusation of rape originally came from the girl’s mother or was due to a misunderstanding or mistranslation by police officers, but the term ‘raped by force’ in Arabic appeared on the initial police report.
But he was cleared after police reviewed hotel CCTV footage which showed the girl going into his hotel bedroom at 4am.
However, the fact that she was 17 put her under Dubai’s age of sexual consent and Marcus was convicted of having under-age sex.
Marcus’s ordeal began in late August when the girl’s mother – who MailOnline isn’t naming – discovered birth control pills in her daughter’s luggage when they returned home from a luxury break in the Gulf state.
The mother complained to the British Embassy in Dubai and consular officials passed on the claim to their counterparts in the Dubai Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Marcus was arrested when officers swooped on his hotel at 7.30pm on August 31 while he was still on holiday.
British teenager Marcus Fakana who has been jailed in Dubai over a holiday romance was cleared of rape – but still faces a year in a hellhole prison because his accuser was two weeks shy of her 18th birthday
The girl’s mother reported Marcus to the authorities after finding birth control pills in her daughter’s luggage
Marcus Fakana says he enjoyed a holiday romance with the 17-year-old girl at the Hilton Dubai Palm Jumeirah (pictured)
He told officers he’d had consensual sex with the girl on three occasions.
His version of events was backed up when officers viewed the CCTV footage of the pair.
Last week, Marcus told how he was ‘shocked beyond belief’ by the year-long sentence handed out for having consensual sex with the girl, without her parents’ knowledge.
News of the Embassy officials’ apparently crucial role in the case comes after Foreign Secretary David Lammy – who is also Marcus’s constituency MP – faced criticism at the weekend when his only comment on the case, was that Britons ‘should follow the rules in other countries’.
Campaign group Detained in Dubai, which is helping and advising Marcus, said: ‘It’s outrageous to remove himself from the case. He [Lammy] clearly did not want to help or have those conversations with the Dubai government.
‘He is absolutely fine to see a young British tourist jailed for relations with someone who was one month away from being 18, simply saying you should follow the law.’
A summary of Marcus’s court hearing given to MailOnline by court sources details that the two young people met at the £210-a-night Hilton hotel by the waters of the Gulf.
According to Marcus’s account, which was accepted by the prosecutors, the pair had sex three times including in his bedroom and in his Mercedes hire car in the hotel’s underground car park.
Marcus was arrested when officers swooped on his hotel at 7.30pm on August 31 while he was still on holiday (Pictured: Hilton Dubai Palm Jumeirah)
Key evidence clearing Marcus of the initial accusation of rape was CCTV footage showing the girl entering his bedroom at in the early hours of the morning (Pictured: Hilton Dubai Palm Jumeirah)
The prosecution document stated: ‘We received a complaint via the Dubai Police application about the rape of a 17-year-old British woman by an unknown person at the Hilton Palm Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai.’ (Pictured: Hilton Dubai Palm Jumeirah)
According to his own account, apprentice builder Marcus had arrived in Dubai on August 26 with his family on holiday (Pictured: Hilton Dubai Palm Jumeirah)
Key evidence clearing Marcus of the initial accusation of rape was CCTV footage showing the girl entering his bedroom at in the early hours of the morning.
According to a report of the court hearing in Dubai, which is closed to the public – and even Marcus as the defendant had to wait outside, he told investigators that sex ‘was with the victim’s consent and without violence or coercion from him, and that the victim was the one who came to him and asked to have sex with her.
‘And upon reviewing the surveillance camera recordings, it was found that she had indeed entered his hotel room.’
The chief investigator told the court: ‘We were informed that we received a complaint via the Dubai Police application, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stating that they received notification from the British Embassy regarding a complaint filed by [name redacted] stating that her daughter, 17 years old, was subjected to forced indecent assault by the aforementioned accused [delete while they were staying at the Hilton Elite Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai.’
Marcus told police after his arrest that the girl approached him and asked him to have sex with her.
The prosecution document stated: ‘We received a complaint via the Dubai Police application about the rape of a 17-year-old British woman by an unknown person at the Hilton Palm Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai.
‘When the complainant was asked over the phone about the details, she stated that an unknown person had recognized her daughter (the victim) at the hotel and raped her by force on August 27 while she was in the country.’
According to his own account, apprentice builder Marcus had arrived in Dubai on August 26 with his family on holiday.
Marcus told police after his arrest that the girl approached him and asked him to have sex with her
The mother, in her late 30s, told the Dubai authorities that she found the birth control pills by chance in her daughter’s belongings, according to the document.
The court heard from the prosecutor: ‘When she asked her about the pills, her daughter told her that she got to know the accused and that she had sex with him several times.’
Asked whether the mother or her daughter were spoken to by police, the court heard: ‘No, because they and her mother left the country and the mother reported the incident after leaving the country.’
Since the court sentence last week, Marcus has been allowed out on bail, while both prosecution and defence decide whether to lodge an appeal, but he is barred from leaving the country and having to spend around £2,000 a month on an Airbnb rental property.
A Dubai police captain was asked by prosecutors if the CCTV footage in the hotel had been reviewed and he replied: ‘Yes, by reviewing the recordings, it was shown that the victim entered the accused’s room at around four in the morning, and when they were visiting the parking lot where he parked his car.’
The police said that Marcus had no criminal record in the official documents.
Marcus is said to have told the officers that he had rented a red Mercedes and the pair had sex in the vehicle at 3am in the hotel car park.
In his police interview, according to the document, Marcus was asked: ‘Did you rape the victim by force?’ to which he replied: ‘It was absolutely with her consent. No.’
When he was asked if he knew her age, he said: ‘Yes, and she told me that she is 17 years old and her birthday is in two weeks.’
In some parts of the police documents, Marcus is referred to as ‘Pakistani’ and aged 19, even though he was, and still is, aged only 18 and British.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
