The British businesswoman accused of having drunken sex in the back of a Dubai taxi turned up to court today wearing a hijab.
Rebecca Blake, 29, from Dorking, Surrey, was sacked from her £100,000 a year job as a recruitment consultant following the scandal and is facing a prison sentence after her alleged tryst with Irish welder Conor McRedmond.
Both appeared at Dubai Criminal Court today.
Following her arrest, Miss Blake insisted she had only been in the taxi for five minutes before the driver reported her to police - but admitted 'I'm no saint' and that she'd drunk so much the whole incident is a 'blur'.
She also described her five days of hell in Bur Dubai women’s holding prison, where she was bitten by cockroaches.
Miss Blake told The Sun how the day, on May 4, started at noon with a four-hour-long all-you-can-drink brunch at Dubai's exclusive Rotana Hotel.
She told the newspaper: 'There’s constant alcohol - your drink won’t even be half gone before you get given a new one. I was table hopping, drinking white wine and just generally having a great time.
'I don't know how much I had, they just kept filling up the glass. I like to party and I like to drink. I'm a single girl with a good job and I am no saint.
'It had been a great day - I was dancing and drinking from 12 noon till gone 10 at night.
The 29-year-old and her friends carried on drinking at the hotel for another two hours, before heading off to another bar, where the party continued until after 10pm.
At 10.30pm, Miss Blake and her friend Conor McRedmond, 28, decided to go home.
The pair hailed a cab towards Dubai Marina.
Minutes later they were spotted in a passionate embrace by the driver in his rear view mirror, according to police reports.
Incensed by their behaviour, the driver stopped and complained to police in a patrol car parked nearby.
When he returned with an officer, they allegedly saw Miss Blake having sex on the back seat of the cab with Mr McRedmond.
Miss Blake refused to discuss what went on in the taxi, but admitted the events are a blur.
She said: 'We were only in the taxi for five minutes before the driver pulled over. I can’t speak about anything in the cab for legal reasons. But I didn’t know what was going on. It is all a blur and I don’t really remember how it all came about.'
The pair were held for five days and accused of having sex outside marriage and being drunk in a public place – both criminal offences in the strict Islamic state.
Miss Blake described her time behind bars as 'hell' and revealed she suffered a panic attack after waking up to find cockroach bites on her face.
She's currently free on bond, but faces up to three years in jail if convicted - and is terrified of the prospect of going back to prison.
She said: 'Looking back I literally went from having fun dancing in the sun to an underground dungeon hell in a matter of hours. I must have dozed off a little bit (in her cell) because when I woke up I had a cockroach bite on my face.
'It was vile - the worst nightmare you could possibly imagine. I had a panic attack and thought, "s***, I am in prison." I was literally terrified.
'I am preparing myself for going back to prison and I really don't know how to cope with it. I don't know if I will. It could finish me if I have to go back inside that hell-hole.'
Mr McRedmond, who is thought to work for an engineering firm, also denies the charges.
Those convicted of having sex outside marriage face a sentence of between one month and three years under Dubai law
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