Rebecca Blake, 30, from Dorking, Surrey, and Conor McRedmond, 28, from
Tullamore, Co. Offaly, had spent a year fighting the allegations.
Witnesses said recruitment executive Blake stri*ped off before straddling McRedmond, who had his jeans pulled down.
The
pair denied the accusations and yesterday said they were ‘disappointed’
by the outcome, which will see both deported after serving their
sentences.
Blake, who was sacked from her £120,000-a-year post,
said: ‘I am devastated by this result and gutted this has been dragging
on for a year. I cannot wait to get home and start my life now but I am
very scared about going to prison.’
McRedmond has been living in
Dubai for four years, said: ‘I am disappointed after coming this far
and fighting these allegations for so long. I feel they are making an
example of us.’
Blake and McRedmond do not have to go to jail
immediately and can decide when to hand themselves in – but if they are
arrested in the meantime or get into trouble with the law, they will be
taken straight to prison.
They cannot leave the country until they have served their sentence.
The pair said they had been financially crippled by the case after spending more than €50,000 fighting to clear their names.
Blake,
who moved to Dubai in September 2011, has not been able to find work
since she was sacked and neither of them can leave the country after
having their passports confiscated.
Blake and McRedmond were arrested on May 4 last year after going on a ten-hour drinking binge.
The
pair met hours earlier at a brunch, where they admitted getting drunk
on free-flowing wine and vodka in an all-inclusive €45-a-head deal.
They carried on drinking at a hotel and got into a taxi together at about 10pm.
Taxi
driver Qaiser Khan, 30, claimed within minutes of getting in, Blake had
taken her top off and was writhing on top of McRedmond while ‘making the sounds of a woman having s*x’.
He
pulled over on Sheikh Zayed road and summoned policeman Abdullah Obaid
Khamis, who told the court that he found the pair having s*x and
interrupted them by tapping on the window.
He told prosecutors: ‘They kept having s*x for four minutes. The man’s shirt was open, his trousers were down to his knees and the woman was not wearing any underwear.’
The
taxi driver alleged Blake offered him ‘a lot of money’ to tell
prosecutors they had been kissing rather than having s*x, but he
refused.
Blake and McRedmond, who works as a manager at Kelly
Steel engineering firm, said the allegations had been trumped up after
they rowed with the taxi driver about taking a longer route home.
The
pair were originally convicted in November in the criminal court, where
they were both sentenced to three months in jail and given a €630 fine
for drinking alcohol – a crime in the Islamic country.
The sentence was challenged in the Court of Appeal in February, which cut the sentence by a month and reduced the fine.
But the Supreme Court – the highest court in the United Arab Emirates – refused to drop the charges altogether, despite medical reports proving the couple did not have s*x.
Their
lawyer Shaker al Shammary yesterday said the statements of the two
witnesses were inconsistent, adding: ‘They threatened to complain about
the taxi driver and he beat them to it – yet there is no mention of
their dispute in the Supreme Court judgment.
‘The medical records show what the witnesses said was not true but this was not taken into account in the ruling.’
The
duo’s only options now are to beg for a royal pardon from Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, or they can serve
their time and challenge the deportation order in the courts.
McRedmond
said: ‘We find ourselves in exactly the same position we were in after
the original verdict but thousands of pounds poorer.
‘Any court
in the world would accept the medical evidence above all else. I love
Dubai and wanted to carry on living here but I am left without a
choice.’
There were fears their failure to clear their names is
part of a crackdown from Dubai authorities on expats flouting their
strict rules.
Vince Acors and Michelle Palmer, a British couple
caught having s*x on a beach, were treated more leniently in 2008 when
they were convicted on the same charge of indecency and ordered to serve
three months in prison, but received a suspended sentence on appeal.
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