Dubai beach sex Brit couple plead not guilty to sex charges

Dubai, Aug 13 : Brit couple Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors have pleaded not guilty to charges brought against them for having sex on the Jumeirah Beach in Dubai.

The two confessed to consuming liquor when they appeared before the Dubai Misdemeanours Court on August 12, but denied that they had engaged in any kind of sexual activity.

Their legal representative Hassan Mattar dismissed the charges of having consensual sex and indecently gesturing in public, which Dubai's Public Prosecution brought against them late last month.

"My clients are innocent and they didn't engage in any sexual activity... the medical reports have proven that there was no sexual activity. The prosecution witnesses failed to confirm that the suspects were seen engaged in sexual intercourse.

The Public Prosecution have also failed to produce corroborative evidence against my clients concerning having consensual sex and committing indecent gestures in public," Gulf News quoted Mattar as explaining.

However, the suspects tested positive for liquor, which appeared in their blood and urine tests, but Palmer, who is from Oakham, Leics, has had that charge dropped because she is a Dubai resident.

According to senior Public Prosecutor Faisal Abdul Malek Ahli, Palmer had reportedly consented to having illicit sexual intercourse at Jumeirah's beachside in front of beachgoers on July 5.

"They had illicit sex and breached public indecency at Jumeirah Open Beach when they were under the influence of liquor," Ahli said earlier in a media statement.

After Mattar submitted his defence on August 12 to the presiding judge the case was adjourned until the first week of September.

As per the reports filed by the police, an officer had warned the couple when he found them engaged in sexual activity on the beach, but when he returned ten minutes later he found they had not stopped.

The policeman tried to arrest them, but the woman allegedly abused him verbally and tried to hit him.

Palmer, who works for a publishing firm in Dubai, has been sacked from her 28,000 pounds-a-year job, and Acors, of Bromley, Kent, was there on holiday.

The couple, both in their 30's, will be going to trial next month for charges of having sex in a public place and sexual intercourse out of marriage. They face between three months and six years in jail if guilty.

ANI