Revealed: The full story behind a British teenager who ended up in Dubai jail over a ‘holiday affair’ – despite being acquitted of serious charges

A British teenager jailed in Dubai over a holiday romance was cleared of rape but still faces a year in jail because his accuser was two weeks shy of her 18th birthday.

Marcus Fakana says he was enjoying a holiday romance with the 17-year-old girl at the Hilton Dubai Palm Jumeirah, but her mother reported him to authorities after finding birth control pills in her daughter’s luggage.

It is not clear whether the accusation of rape originally came from the girl’s mother or was due to a misunderstanding or mistranslation by police officers, but the term “rape by force” in Arabic appeared on the first police report.

But he was cleared after police reviewed hotel CCTV footage, which showed the girl entering his hotel room at 4am.

However, the fact that she was 17 put her below Dubai’s sexual consent age and Marcus was convicted of sex with minors.

Marcus’ ordeal began at the end of August when the girl’s mother – who MailOnline is not naming – discovered contraceptive pills in her daughter’s luggage as they returned home from a luxury holiday in the Gulf state.

The mother filed a complaint with the British Embassy in Dubai and consular officials passed the claim on to their counterparts at Dubai’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Marcus was arrested when officers burst into his hotel at 7.30pm on August 31 while he was still on holiday.

He told officers he had consensual sex with the girl three times.

His version of events was supported when officers reviewed the couple’s CCTV footage.

Last week, Marcus told how he was ‘incredibly shocked’ by the one-year prison sentence imposed for having consensual sex with the girl without her parents’ knowledge.

News of the apparent crucial role of embassy officials in the case comes after Foreign Secretary David Lammy – who is also Marcus’s MP – was criticized last weekend when his only comment on the case was that Britons were ‘breaking the rules in other countries had to follow’. ‘.

Campaign group Detained in Dubai, which is helping and advising Marcus, said: “It is outrageous to remove itself from the case. He (Lammy) clearly did not want to help or have these conversations with the Dubai government.

“He’s happy to see a young British tourist go to jail for dating someone who won’t be 18 in a month, simply because he says you have to follow the law.”

A summary of Marcus’ court hearing, given to MailOnline by court sources, indicates the two young people met at the £210-a-night Hilton hotel on the waters of the Gulf.

According to Marcus’ account, which was accepted by prosecutors, the pair had sex three times, including in his bedroom and in his Mercedes rental car in the hotel’s underground parking garage.

The key evidence that cleared Marcus of the initial rape charge was CCTV footage showing the girl entering his bedroom in the early hours of the morning.

According to a report from the Dubai court hearing, which is closed to the public – and even Marcus as the defendant had to wait outside – he told investigators that sex was “with the consent of the victim and without violence or coercion on his part, and that it victim was the one who came to him and asked to have sex with her.

“And upon reviewing the surveillance camera footage, it appeared that she had indeed entered his hotel room.”

The lead investigator told the court: ‘We were informed that through the Dubai Police application we had received a complaint from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stating that they had received a notification from the British Embassy regarding a complaint filed by ( name redacted) stating that her daughter, aged 17, was subjected to forcible indecent assault by the above suspects (delete while staying at the Hilton Elite Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai).”

Marcus told police after his arrest that the girl approached him and asked him to have sex with her.

The statement said: “We have received a complaint through the Dubai Police application regarding the rape of a 17-year-old British woman by an unknown person at the Hilton Palm Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai.

“When the complainant was asked about the details over the phone, she stated that an unknown person had recognized her daughter (the victim) at the hotel on August 27 and forcibly raped her while she was in the country.”

According to his own account, apprentice builder Marcus arrived in Dubai on holiday with his family on August 26.

The mother, in her late 30s, told Dubai authorities that she had accidentally found the birth control pills in her daughter’s belongings, the document said.

The court heard from the prosecutor: ‘When asked about the pills, her daughter said she had met the suspect and had sex with him several times.’

When asked whether the mother or her daughter were spoken to by the police, the court heard: “No, because she and her mother left the country and the mother reported the incident after leaving the country.”

Since the court’s ruling last week, Marcus has been allowed out on bail while both the prosecution and defense decide whether to appeal. But he is banned from leaving the country and has to spend around £2,000 a month on a rental property on Airbnb.

A police commander in Dubai was asked by prosecutors whether CCTV footage at the hotel had been viewed and he replied: ‘Yes, reviewing the footage has revealed that the victim entered the suspect’s room at around 4am, and when they were visiting the parking lot where he parked his car.’

Police said Marcus had no criminal record in official records.

Marcus allegedly told officers that he had rented a red Mercedes and that the pair had sex in the vehicle in the hotel parking lot at 3 a.m.

According to the document, during his police interrogation, Marcus was asked, “Did you forcibly rape the victim?” to which he replied, “It was absolutely with her consent.” No.’

When asked if he knew her age, he said, “Yes, and she told me she’s 17 years old and her birthday is in two weeks.”

In some parts of the police documents, Marcus is referred to as ‘Pakistani’ and is said to be 19 years old, even though he was and is only 18 years old and British.