Marcus Fakana gets prison sentence in Dubai.

[Ohnonotmeagain]

This is the 18 year old lad who had a holiday romance with a 17 year old girl in Dubai. She was just short of 18.

her parents found out and reported him to the Dubai authorities before he returned home.

his poor parents aren’t well off and had to return home to work leaving him there.

he’s now been sentenced to 1 year in prison.

aibu to think this poor boy should never have been brought before court.

You clearly have none. How nice for you.

Well, I feel sorry for the boy.
Yes, he should really have known the local laws etc, but honestly, it was consensual and both were above the UK legal age.
I think he was very unlucky that the girl's mum turned out to be so nasty.
If I was the boy's family I would be looking to see if the girl be made to return to Dubai to face charges too as she has admitted it was consensual. I get that she is seen as the victim though, but it might give the girl's mum a bit of a scare.

Untrue.

I do have empathy but at 18 years old you are an adult not a child. Of course people of this age do stupid things but he shouldn’t have done what he did or googled it first.

The Dubai authorities are making an example of him disobeying their laws.

Happy Christmas!

And you to, lovely.

No
They had sex on holiday
His parents knew they were in a relationship but she didn’t tell hers
Her parents went home after the holiday ( at some point found out, probably before they left ….what did they think their daughter was doing ). Once home they reported to the authorities in Dubai that the 18 year old had sex with their daughter ( she was a few weeks younger than him and so 17 )
He was arrested
The girl stayed in England
Hes now in jail.

Poor kid, he might be legally an adult but no one suddenly becomes a fully formed adult the minute they stop being a 17 year old child. He's a school kid. What school kid reads up on the laws of a holiday their parents are taking them on? People on here are being real twats about it.

The mother is a really nasty bit of work

The fact that they both live in the uk where consent is 16 is what makes it worse. The mum went out of the way to ruin his life. Her daughter can carry on. Possibly a religious family which is why she reacted the way she did. But he looks so young and I wish more could have been done to stop this. If they had met in London this wouldn’t have happened.

It’s just so so sad and I hope her parents have a truly horrible year too.
Shame on them

According to the law in Dubai the girl was a minor. Below the age of consent.
FWIW I met in my work a family who wanted to marry off their daughter who was below the age of consent in the UK. She wanted to get married too! I had to tell colleagues in children's social care as they clearly thought they could continue to behave in the UK just as they did at home. When in Rome.
And if he's old enough to have sex he's old enough to think it through.

I'd love to know the mums motives for reporting him. Maybe she's ashamed of her daughter and she can punish the lad. Yes he broke the law, but I can't understand why the mum would want to report him.

Exactly
Based on the biology of brain development she is more mature than him.

I feel very sorry for him because I don't think he did anything morally wrong, only something criminally wrong. If your eighteen year old girl did something silly and drank in Dubai, I wouldn't feel ok if they were prosecuted for that, nor if they were raped and they were arrested when they tried to report it. I have no issues with saying I feel those laws are unfair and overly punitive, plus they are not applied equally to both men and women or indeed people from different ethnicities.

I feel very sorry for him, but he broke the law.

If a 40 year old man came to the UK and had sex with a 12 year old girl on the basis that this was legal in his country, he would be prosecuted. And quite rightly so. Where do you draw the line?

Hearing this does make me think the mother is being malicious in reporting this.

I mean really? You think a 40 year old visiting the UK having sex with someone under 16 is comparable to this!

@SavingTheBestTillLast yes this is actually a good point. Of course we don't know them though.

Having a giggle at kids of this age googling the legal age they can have sex. As if that would ever happen.

Teen A: We're alone, let's do this.
Teen B: Hang on a sec, "Hey Siri, am I old enough to have sex here?"

There's a Go FundMe for him, if anyone's interested.

😐

Look,if you go round in public touching your husband intimately and snogging his face off then go for it. If you do these things in Dubai you'll be in trouble it's no more complicated than that. For a country you've never been to and never will you seem mightily over invested.

Have you read the story? That's not a similar example at all!!!

Very tough on him, but at least it’ll be a lesson to others, that if you want to visit the UAE, FGS take their laws seriously.

I agree it is shocking but as a tourist you don't get away with breaking laws. I would never visit U.A.E or any other country that has appalling human rights and do not see why anyone thinks a holiday in Dubai is a great idea but their laws are what matters in that country no ours.

Actually - the difference is how you are treated.

Of friends who went there to work, they say there are no policies in place with regard to harassement/sexual/human rights etc. Locals will always be treated with priority. If they hit your car, its your fault.

Those who are indian are considered secondary to white people. I have highly qualified asian friends who have to take lowly TA jobs because the arabs want to be taught by someone white. Friends in HR there say that the talent pool from abroad are those who cant get the roles in London which are highly competitive, so they often get people who arent really that good.

Finally - those who go over to do menial jobs like cleaning etc, are treated appallingly. I know of two who went over with hopes and dreams, only to have their passports taken and then raped and abused by their new employers.