Marcus Fakana sentenced to a year in prison

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www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles]]]]
I cannot believe that this lad is going to spend a year in prison- yes, I know that’s the law there, he should have known better etc, etc
I hope that the girl’s mother is ashamed of her actions.
I don’t want to think what the impact will be on Marcus 😥

Well if that fact I called a convited sexual criminal a dirty young man offends you then its tough really isnt it. He is hardly a good lad is he 🙄

And your repulsive choice of words about a young lad is just your nasty bigoted opinion but here we are

As I said previously he is a convicted sexual prisoner, so I dont really care what you think.

A young lad is a 12 or 13 year old. He is EIGHTEEN, an adult and old enough to google the laws.

@icelolly12 can you say, hand on heart, that when you went abroad as a young adult you read up on the laws in that country?

The prosecution managed to escalate the charge though to ensure he got prison.

so not black and white. He didn’t get the sentence he “should” have got- which I believe was conviction and deportation.

The timeline of events has always struck me as a bit odd (it’s been reported that Marcus arrived in the UEA on 26/08 and was arrested on the 31/08)

In that space of time, he met the girl, had a holiday romance, had sex several times, she returned home, her mother found out, reported it, the police took action. That’s a lot in 5 days. I wonder if they knew each other before the holiday?

Not every single law, but that would be my fault if I unknowingly broke a law for not doing the research.

Care to share your documented evidence for this?
He was tried and convicted in a foreign country, so your opinions hardly matter do they.

So its,wrong for an 18 year old to have consensual sex with a girl a few weeks younger than him ?
Your prejudices are showing

@nogginatemycat calling an 18 year old who had consensual sex with a nearly 18 year old a “convicted sexual prisoner” really does show that you’re not capable of rational thought regarding this case. Yes I know that technically it’s true, in a bizarre foreign country, but this is a UK chat forum and most people here are from the UK, where terms like “sexual prisoner” are reserved for paedophiles and rapists. I think you have a very strange moral compass. And saying things like “zero fucks given” suggest quite a cruel streak.

Anyway, Emarati law aside, there’s a fundraiser for Marcus for those on the thread who who want to show support. Plus a petition, all chatter about his case is positive, the more chatter the better.

People I’ve spoken to irl have without exception been extremely sympathetic to this boy’s fate and similarly appalled by the actions of the mother.

It’s disingenuous to focus on the law, when an individual’s vindictiveness that is the reason why a teenager is in an emerati prison.

Well as the facts prove it is wrong in the country he was found guilty in. He chose to have sexual relations in a country where it was illegal, how hard is it for you to understand that your UK views are irrelevant in other countries.

A genealogy website - where are other posters getting their information from?

If you bought a can of shandy in America a week before your 21st birthday, would you think it was OK to go to prison for a year? Or would you think it was bloody unfair?

Don’t waste your breath on the rage-baiters! They love it…

Thanks for all this info. I agree the more noise about this the better.

I guess i see it as a stark reminder that we can't go abroad treating the world like a Disney playground for adults then cry when the ride breaks. It just smacks of British entitlement.

Sorry but the fact is he has been tried in the court of law in Dubai and he has been found guilty of sexual offences and sent to prison, so yes he is a sexual prisoner who is guilty. It is irrelivent where a majority MN forums users are based its on the WWW.

You really find the grasp of facts hard dont you.

You seem to be slagging off ‘the British’ quite a lot, along with this poor British kid. I’d like to know where you are come from?

England

Christ, this thread and its rampant callousness and racism masquerading as incontrovertible truth. I've had to wade through it all, as I was hoping someone might have posted ways in which those of us with compassion and intelligence could support this boy - petitions, donations? If anyone comes cross any, could you please post them, and ideally @ me, so I don't have to read any more of this retrograde, despicable bullshit? Thank you.

There’s the law, and there’s compassion. Do you understand the concept of compassion? Or do you think that the law should be rigidly adhered to in all situations? Is it Ok for someone to drive at 31 mph in a city if they’re taking their unconscious child to A&E? Or should they get points on their licence?

Although it sounds as though he was treated improperly by local police, in order to obtain a harsher sentence, and although I have a lot of sympathy for Marcus, I don't fundamentally disagree with Ice Lolly.

He did commit a crime in a country where it is particularly unwise to do so.

That's not to say I think, realistically, that teenage Brits going away on vacation to a holiday destination increasingly presented as fairly liberal in their laws, are going to do their own due diligence on local law. I can understand him assuming that, as they were in the same school year, there'd be no issue. It is his mistake but it's one you can see easily being made.

I do think more should be done to educate British people of local laws that we would consider overly punitive, in-force at popular holiday destinations.

Mumsnet has been full of Visit Qatar ads recently, for example, and you can well imagine someone booking a family holiday (based on a cheery looking ad on a popular website) without carrying out sufficient due diligence.

Edit- i quotes the wrong post. Noggin's post was absolutely vile.

@nogginatemycat I have no trouble grasping facts. What I find incomprehensible is your cruelty.