Marcus Fakana sentenced to a year in prison

[Zippedydodah]

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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 😥

God the mother really thought about all this didn't she.

How did she even come up with the plan? It wouldn't have even occurred to me.

Conniving bitch

You answer mine and then I will answer yours.

Markus and the girl were the same age bar a couple of months so the same scenario in the UK would be a 16 year old having consensual sex with a 15 year old - the police would have absolutely no interest at all. And if either were my kids I’d have a word if I found out by accident but I wouldn’t snoop through their personal messages then report them

Excellent question.

A friend of mine who was working in Saudi Arabia flew his boyfriend over for the week. They evidently booked two rooms but only used one of them.

According to some posters here if I reported him from the UK that would be fine and anybody taking issue with that would be a problem.

So they were not the same age, and it was against the law. If your baneed from driving for 12 months should you be able to drive after 8 months?

Why 14 and 18? Those years are far apart and signify a fairly decent emotional maturity gap.

Markus and the girl had a 2 month age gap.

It would be like if I knew a 16 year old Colombian guy had sexism with a 15 year old Colombian girl in Britain for your analogy to make sense.

And I don’t know many who would be calling for the boy to be imprisoned.

Would you like to answer my question @nogginatemycat?

I would not report my own friends but I would also advise them agaist going in the first place. I would also not defend them if they were reported.

Now answer my question, if you will.

No I would not report that
The woman who did report the crime did so from very dubious motives BUT if the young man hadn't committed a crime then he would have been fine.
He may not have realised it was a crime but unfortunately thats not a legal defence.

I think the difficulty with this case is the closeness in age

An 18 year old having consensual sex with someone a couple of months under 18 (this occurred in September and she is now 18 so literally weeks away from her 18th birthday)

This wasn't an age gap thing or someone in their late 20's sleeping with a 16 year old

The mother waited until her daughter was back in the uk and then reported him so that he would be put in prison - for what purpose? He isn't a paedophile preying on children yet he will be targeted as such

And I really doubt anyone going on holiday studies the laws of that county explicitly and even sites which supposedly tell you the laws don't mention age of consent- just dress modestly, no pda, no alcohol or smoking outside designated areas and drugs are a big no no. www.hdfcergo.com/travel-insurance/travel-o-guide/dubai/law-ethics

The family handled it badly though. Instead of banging on about how the law was ‘wrong’ ( because they didn’t agree with it), the Dubai authorities were unreasonable etc etc, they should have grovelled , said sorry, said he was an ignorant idiot….(which I expect was what the consulate was saying behind the scenes, not because they believed it, but because they wanted to get the accused off and home).

When he was remanded before the formal judgement, they doubled down on the ‘unfair’ narrative. So he’s in prison. They could have praised the gouvernement for giving the minimum sentence, and I expect he would have been pardoned.

So where do you decided where the law starts and ends when in a foreign country?

Either you follow the law or you dont and if you get caught you follow the consequenses. Like I said she was not 18, it is a straight foward fact.

Your turn 😂

I read that she found the messages when back in the UK?

Irrespective it’s unlikely that the mother randomly knew the laws around consent in Dubai. She will have been researching a way to keep the two apart and ensure they could not continue their relationship in the UK.

Which makes it all the more disturbing.

Either you follow the law or you dont and if you get caught you follow the consequenses. Like I said she was not 18, it is a straight foward fact.

Even in law there is nuance.

This would never happen here, and rightly so.

But that's Dubai for you.

Reactionary, authoritarian, backward with an appalling record on humanrights, women's rights and employment rights.

I've never understood why anyone goes there unless they have family links. It's quite clearly not safe, and spending holiday money there just perpetuates their values.

I lived in the UAE for a decade and (although I keep hearing it’s changed!) there is/was a kind of stratified apartheid between nationalities, with Arabs at the top of the pile, and black people (particularly African migrant workers) towards the bottom. White Westerners come second after Arabs, so many British ex pats deny this culture even exists, because they do quite nicely out of it. 🙄

Very outing, but I had a minor car crash in AD with a Saudi guy who was drunk and uninsured. The police visited my apartment as part of their “investigation” and took great interest in my alcohol licence and my supposedly Muslim surname, and very little in the circumstances of the crash, i.e. I was oh-so-subtly being advised not to pursue the other guy.

It doesn’t surprise me at all that a vindictive person would seek to exploit existing prejudice on the part of the UAE authorities.

Right.

As pp say, it is not a comparable situation, but here goes.

If the 18 year old and the 14 year old were living here permanently, I would take the 18 year old aside and advise them they were breaking the law and that they could be prosecuted. I would report if I thought the 14 year old was being coerced/not consenting. If not, I am not sure whether I would report it.

Eta: if the 18 year old was in a position of trust, as set out in your later post, I would report.

If the man was in his 20s I would report with no hesitation.

If they were here on a three week holiday, I would keep my nose out unless I thought the 14 year old was being coerced/not consenting. Although if they were staying under my roof I would not allow it.

People need to stop going to bloody Dubai.

Or at least if they DO go, perhaps obey the extremely restrictive laws when they're there? Yes the mother is clearly vindictive, but if you break the rules then you're going to get into trouble. Now he's paying the price.

Wow some friend you are!

Does the word empathy mean anything to you?

Your responses are a reflection of your character. Unpleasant and smug.

Plus the fact she originally reported that her daughter had been raped against her will by Marcus - she should be jailed for a malicious and false allegation

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/rape-and-sexual-offences-chapter-7-key-legislation-and-offences

• If the suspect is 18 or over and in a position of trust to the complainant and the complainant is aged 16 or 17 the offence should be charged under Section 17 Sexual Offences 2003.

False

I like to think law abiding and respectful of the customs and laws of other countries, you obviously think your above them. Which speaks more about you then me thank you.

A lesson for all of us. Do not visit places like this. Do not support tourism in known homophobic, sexist countries.

It's not up to MPs to interfere with foreign law just like we wouldn't accept politicians from other countries interfering with our judical processes.

Ultimately, he broke the law and the consequences could have been much worse. He could have been facing five years or more.