Off-duty US Navy sailor stops Dubai rape attempt with leg stranglehold
A US Navy Ocean Tug ship and a helicopter of the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet participate in a crisis response exercise in a port in the capital Manama. US military supply ship USNS Rappahannock fired on a small boat when it ignored warnings and came too close on July 16, 2012. At least one Indian national was killed.
An off-duty US Navy sailor stopped a Dubai bus driver from raping her at knifepoint by breaking his knife in two, biting him and putting him in a stranglehold between her thighs.
The sailor, 28, was on a 24-hour leave when her ship docked at Port Khaled in Sharjah on January 19 and she decided to visit Mall of the Emirates and a supermarket. She was trying to hail a taxi to head back to the port when a bus pulled up beside her.
The sailor climbed on and sat in the back seat of the bus, but became suspicious by the route the driver was taking.
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"I noticed he did not take the main road and when I asked him he told me not to worry," she said in court.
The driver took her to a deserted area where other buses were parked. The woman told the court that he then tore off her clothes and tried to rape her.
"I resisted him to the best of my ability, but he touched me all over. He touched my breasts and bit me everywhere … the more I resisted, the harder he bit me," she testified.
The female sailor said she stopped fighting back when the man took out a medium-sized kitchen knife.
"For fear of him cutting me I did what he asked, but when he attempted to fondle my breasts again, I saw my chance. I knocked the knife from his hand, and had him in a stranglehold between my thighs," she continued in court.
Police arrested the driver the next day at his home.
"He was drunk at the time of arrest," said the attending officer.
The man, 21, was charged with attempted rape, threatening to kill, assault and consuming alcohol illegally. He confessed to the alcohol charge but claimed he was too drunk to remember what had happened the day before.
The trial was adjourned until May 1.