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.

Or maybe
Just keep well away!
There are other countries far more deserving of your holiday money !

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER I agree but it will also have the effect of really turning people away from visiting there. The bad PR this has generated for Dubai will undermine lot of their current glamorous and attractive tourist advertising, for sure.

I feel so sorry for this young man.
The parents of the girl involved weee malicious in reporting a consenting and age appropriate sexual act, as they left or had left the country.
I would never go that or nearby countries. Their double standards and hypocrisy are a danger to western tourists.

I'm highlighting the ambiguous nature of how the law is applied there as people on this thread or reading this thread will need to have their wits about them.

You must admit don't hold hands on Foreign Office advice page is very, very strict they don't say anything about it being ok in certain contexts so confusing.

I have a lot of sympathy for this young man and his family.
British people need to understand that other countries aren't just England but hotter, there are different laws and customs that have to be abided by.

Also, I'm highlighting the difficulties in establishing the facts on this so even if the poor lad had researched his parents' holiday destination he may have still have been unwittingly caught out.

She hasn't been named? I'm suspicious there is a racial aspect here but I might be wrong

Yes and people in the UK at least, are able to criticise that.

How many British 18 year olds heading off on holiday do you think Google the age of consent of the country they are going to…especially if they are having a romance with a 17 year old.

Be honest?

Why are you comparing a 40 year paedophile molesting a pre-pubescent girl to an 18 and 17 year old having a holiday romance?

The fact you cannot think of a more comparable analogy (like a 16 year old having sex with a 15 year old) speaks volumes.

Are you not allowed to spark up a romance if you are away with your parents?

YABU. We expect people visiting the U.K. to respect our laws. We need to afford them the same expectations and abide by their laws.,

Yes, she must have gone to a lot of trouble to contact the police in Dubai. Why do this? There are other ways of showing disapproval.

The girl is not guilty of anything. Only he broke the law. Underaged people aren’t punished for being underaged.

But yes the mother needs to have the world’s worst things happen to her.

I wouldn't, personally, out of respect especially if parents have paid for me to accompany them on holiday as an adult. No I wouldn't go looking for sex in that circumstance.

The again, it's not my thing to be having sex with someone I've only just met, or know less than a week, whatever.

As far as he was concerned they were both in the same year at school.

He's a man.
He broke the law.
In a country not known for leniency.
I never went abroad and broke laws.
Did you?

Plus the 17 year old girl also going on holiday and hiding the relationship from her parents
Wonder if she forgot she was 17 @Real1378262

Look in at his photo…I think they would.

Just today, I saw a video on You Tube by a young British man in Dubai, who moved there because it's "a land of opportunity". We really need to educate people who visit or move to Dubai about what can go wrong.
What a terrible thing. Poor young lad. I feel so sorry for him.

So why wasn’t she extradited to face the law of Dubai too.

Maybe. But she was a minor, and the victim, according to that country.

Yet biologically more mature in terms of brain development.
She is more guilty in that sense than he is.

Apparently they had made plans to meet when back in London and the mom probably wanted to make sure that would not happen.