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21 Oct 2020

Royal family sex assault claim – in United Arab Emirates

Social Affairs Editor and Presenter

Warning: this report contains distressing details of the alleged sexual abuse.

A woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by a senior member of the royal family of the United Arab Emirates has told this programme she fled the country as soon as she could.

In her first television interview, Caitlin McNamara said she was in the UAE and was meeting Sheikh Nahyan as part of her job as curator of the Hay literary festival.

But she claims that she suffered a serious sexual assault.

With little hope of prosecution in the UAE, she now wants the British government to intervene.

Lawyers for the Sheikh have denied the allegations.