Marcus Fakana gets prison sentence in Dubai.

The age of consent in Dubai is 18. He broke the law.

The age of consent is 18 in lots of countries. It's 17 in Ireland too, although there are some countries with a lower age of consent than Britain's 16.

Imagine if some foreign teenager had sex with a British child of 15. Do you really think the British authorities, let alone the Press, would just let them off?

He’s not the only person who broke the law. He was also underage so she broke the law just as much. Her mother waited until being in the U.K. before she reported it. If they’d still been in Dubai her daughter would also be in prison for a year 🤷‍♀️

@TiramisuThief he is not a child, where did you read that?

I absolutely agree you should follow the laws of the country you're visiting. I think the waters are a bit muddied for Dubai though as lots of the laws/rules are relaxed while you're in a hotel - drinking, PDA, clothing etc. It's not crazy to think a young English man of 18 would dream having consensual sex with a 17yo in a hotel could wind him up in prison. Lots of the comments on this thread are going to be from older, well travelled individuals with parental responsibility who have an understanding of cultural and legal differences between countries.

Ignorance isn't an excuse but I have total sympathy for him.

It's Dubai. Of course people know that they have a whole raft of different laws and punitive punishments. They probably don't think that the parents of your summer romance are going to tell on you, but there you go. Don't go to Dubai seems the easy answer to this shit.

.

far too often, people brush off the draconian local laws of tourist destinations by saying those laws don’t really apply to tourists. Authorities may tend to look away, but that doesn’t mean tourists are actually exempt from the law.

This is the why I would never visit Dubai, they seem to delight in throwing people in prison, I even know someone who was living the capitalist dream out there for years and ended up in jail due to a dodgy business partner. Meanwhile the country runs on exploiting migrant labour.

I hope that girls mother is satisfied with herself now.

There is some real empathy on this thread isn't there?! My goodness.

The poor lad is a child, have you never done anything inadvisable as a teen?

And for those of you braying about how it's the law - did you look up the laws of the country when you went on holidays as a young person? Of course you didn't. Why would you, he would have trusted it was safe, he was with his parents.

If anyone is to blame they are for not properly researching the destination and telling him what's what.

Really sad situation, I'm relived he's"only" got a year but that could be life changing. God only knows what prisons are like there. I hope somehow he can be released to UK custody.

It does not since UK doesn't have it.
Happy to be corrected that it has

When you travel abroad you have to respect their laws however different, ridiculous, or archaic. In this particular case he broke the law, not an ambiguous one, it was clear cut. Would be the same in many other countries although authorities tend to be less inclined to actually prosecute

Bloody hell. The hate for UAE is so sttong that people argue that getting nicked after having sex with under age of consent person is wrong

But it does have relevance to your previous comment.

Totally agree with @TickingAlongNicely. I do feel very sorry for him though.

Yanbu. I hope he is pardoned.
Dubai is an awful place and that mother sounds nasty.

Little sympathy for anyone who travels to Dubai - I blame his parents really.

Great, absolutely no bearing on this tho. Uk doesn't afaik

What do you mean his parents aren't well off, they were well off to go on holiday to Dubai, it isn't Butlins?

@Glittertwins no, she didn't. Pre marital sex in Dubai is not illegal. It's the having sex with a person who is classed as a minor that is illegal. He's the only one who broke the law. Just as if someone here had underage sex with an older person that person would be convicted of statutory rape, not the person underage. It's the same, just their consequences are harsher.

He broke the law. I don’t see what the outrage is for

A lot of western nations have "Romeo and Juliet" laws

The girl is considered a victim. So not really.
Like do you consider arresting 14 year old in UKif she has sex with16 year old or is it just the 16 year old who is in trouble. Samw principle.

He broke the law of that country, but the family of the woman are at fault here. I guess she's now estranged from them.

So did the girl. But the spiteful mother made sure she was well clear of the country first. I hope the girl sees how vindictive her mother is.

I've just checked and this changed since 2020. I last went in 2019. 🙄 So he had fewer laws to follow than we did when we went and basically he's in the same boat as if he had done the same thing in the US or many other countries where age of consent is 18. I have even less sympathy than when I first posted.

On one hand, it seems ridiculous.

On the other hand... if a foreigner had committed a crime against a woman in the UK, that wasn't a crime in their home country, there would be outcry if he was just deported.

So we can't have it both ways.