Posted by By Michael Theodoulou/Colin Fernandez on
A British couple was sentenced to three months in jail for a drunken sex session on the beach, in Dubai.
A British couple was sentenced to three months in jail for a drunken sex session on the beach, in Dubai.
Vince Acors, 34, and Michelle Palmer, 36, were also fined £180 each for being drunk in public. They will be deported after completing their prison terms.
Acors, from Bromley, South-East London, and Palmer, from Oakham, Rutland, had their amorous encounter after meeting at a £60-a-head champagne brunch.
A local complained that he saw them having sex on the beach, and a policeman told them to stop. When the couple moved to a different part of the beach and apparently carried on they were arrested.
The pair denied having sex outside of marriage and public indecency but admitted being drunk in the early hours of 5 July.
Palmer claimed, at her trial in August, she had only been ‘hugging and kissing' Acors, and the pair's lawyer, Hassan Matter, has said medical examinations proved Palmer did not have sex.
The couple say they will appeal and are expected to remain free until the case is heard. But the prosecution also plans to appeal, saying the three-month terms were not enough.
Neither attended the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours yesterday, to hear Judge Hamdi Abdul Khair's verdict. ‘When I told Michelle, she was not crying but she was upset,' Mr Matter said. ‘I told them before that I thought the judge would give this verdict.'
Palmer has apparently become a recluse since the scandal broke. She was said to be in hiding and taking anti-depressants, terrified at the prospect of being jailed.
Mr Matter claimed the three-month sentences showed the judge did not believe the couple had sex. He suggested they had been punished for the ‘indecent act of kissing'.
The couple had faced a maximum penalty of two years, and senior prosecutor, Faisal Abdelmalek Ahli, said: ‘I'm not happy. It's normal for a sentence to be six months to a year for an offence such as this.'
If three months were to be the final sentence, Mr Ahli said he expected Acors and Palmer to serve the full term in Dubai. The case has come to symbolise the clash of cultures in Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates.
The bustling city state's conservative muslim people do not have a relaxed Western attitude to casual sex and drinking. The couple has been free on bail with their passports confiscated since their tryst on Jumeirah Beach after they met at Le Meridien Hotel near Dubai airport.
Palmer worked as a £25,000-a-year manager for ITP, a publishing house, which sacked her after her arrest. Acors, a telecoms sales director, who is divorced with a son of seven, was on a business trip to the UAE.