COP TAUNTS
Tori Towey reveals grim new details of how Dubai cops LAUGHED at injuries & ‘ripped at’ piercing after husband’s attack
Tori laid bare the hellhole conditions she encountered in Dubai’s Al Barsha police station
FREED Tori Towey has revealed how a cop LAUGHED at her domestic violence injuries amid her “horrible” treatment at the hands of the Dubai authorities.
Emotional Tori, 28, today lifted the lid on her horror ordeal after arriving back in Ireland.
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The traumatised Emirates Airlines flight attendant, from Boyle, Co Roscommon, was detained in the UAE, charged with attempting to kill herself and alcohol consumption following a brutal attack by her husband at their home in Dubai.
Frantic Tori had faced jail time after being hit with criminal charges and a travel ban - despite suffering a campaign of domestic abuse.
The desperate young woman pleaded for help from the Irish Government after she was taken to a police station and her passport blocked from use.
With Tori due before court on the criminal charges next week, the domestic abuse victim had then been forced to stay in a rented apartment in Dubai with mum Caroline, who flew out to support her daughter.
But following a diplomatic intervention from Irish officials, relieved Tori was able to fly home with her mum on Thursday, after the travel ban imposed on her by Dubai authorities was lifted and all charges dropped.
Opening up on her UAE hell from her Roscommon home today, Tori laid bare the shocking treatment she suffered at the hands of the Dubai authorities.
And the domestic abuse victim told how one Dubai cop even TAUNTED her despite visible signs of severe bruising and other terrible injuries.
She said: “When I went in after that night that I was beaten up, I went to the police station, there was one policeman who was very lovely to me.
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“But there was another guy, he walked into the room, now my forehead is completely swollen, my shirt is ripped, I’ve blood, I’ve bruises everywhere and he came in and he started pointing and laughing at me.
Tori Towey's mum reveals relief at getting daughter back home to Ireland
“And he was like ‘ha, ha, what happened to you? Did you hit your head on the ground when you were praying?’”
Stunned Tori recalled how she was taken to a police station instead of a hospital after her suicide attempt at her Dubai home following domestic violence by her husband.
Speaking about the “frightening” moment she was bundled into a cop car, terrified Tori said: “There were a lot of police there, paramedics, they gave me oxygen and they were speaking in Arabic, so I didn’t know what was going on and they were speaking to my husband at the time.
“So then they just, they gave me, they started to look for clothes, I was in my pyjamas, so they got, they handed me a green dress of mine told me to put it on, I put it on and they just put me in the police car and brought me to the station.
"And they brought me to the station, they made me blow into this thing and took my fingerprint.
I got out but I keep thinking about the other girls that are stuck in there for months and months and months, like I’ve never, I’ve never been able to stop thinking about that.”
Tori
“And then I had called my mother because I was hysterical because I was like, ‘I’m in a police station and I don’t know why, I don’t know why I’m here’ and I was like, I, because I don’t know, because I already knew kind of a little bit about them (the Dubai authorities) kind of just putting people in jail...
“And then they just took me, they strip searched me, they took all my jewellery off, I had a belly button piercing and they were struggling to take it out, they were pulling at it and ripping at it and like hurting me and I was saying, ‘look, it’s okay, I’ll take it out myself’.
"And like just not nice at all, like just kind of aggressive, they don’t speak to you, they don’t tell you what’s happening to you, they don’t tell you anything.”
Ms Towey highlighted the hellhole conditions she encountered while being held inside Dubai’s Al Barsha police station - as she admitted fearing she would be left locked-up for months.
She continued: “And then I went upstairs, and it’s just like this tiny corridor with these individual cells with mattresses on the floor, and there’s so many girls there and I sat down, like the girls that I met were lovely, some of them were there for seven months in this tiny little corridor with a mattress on the floor, they’d never gone outside, they’ve never been told what’s happening to them and they’re there from very like kind of wrong place, wrong time, like very minor things.
“And that’s when I started to panic and I was thinking, like I could be here for months, and I remember saying to the girls that were there at the time, I said like, ‘how do you do it? I don’t know how I’m going to get through this?’.
CHILDREN AMONG THOSE DETAINED
“Because even the lights in there, it’s like a surgical room, they’re so bright. They don’t turn the lights off when you try to sleep.
"And they were like, no, the lights are on constantly, you don’t have toothbrushes, they don’t give you clothes, you need money in there to pay for everything, like it’s a really horrible place.
“I got out but I keep thinking about the other girls that are stuck in there for months and months and months, like I’ve never, I’ve never been able to stop thinking about that.”
Panic-stricken Tori outlined how she was held at Al Barsha police station from 4am to 11am - with children among the fellow detainees.
She explained: “In that time I was never told if I was going to be released or not, so I’m just, I’m one of the lucky people. You’re thinking this is it and you could be in there for a long time.
“There’s also a lot of children in there, there was a room and there was a window and I remember seeing like the mothers on the floor with, on a mattress sleeping with their three children. They also have children in the jail as well, which I just think is disgusting.
“I don’t even know what the children eat because I know they bring round meals, I think the first one is like rice, they told me, and chicken at 5am or something like that. But you need money to pay for stuff, so unless you have family outside to maybe bring you in some clothes and bring you in toiletries and everything, you’re not given anything.
"So I think that’s also an issue because unless you know someone on the outside, if you don’t know anyone, like you’re going to be there in the same clothes for months with, nothing.”
WOMAN HELD FOR A DECADE
Tori spoke of her “total shock” at being taken to the cop shop where she met women being held there for up to 10 YEARS.
Ms Towey said: "Some girls come and go, a lot of English. They said sometimes there's a lot of English in there. But the other, the ones that I met was, the ones, the girls that I spoke to was the girl from Ukraine, Belarus and the Filipinos.
"The ones in the Philippines, they'd been there a very long time. And I think that's just due to the fact of just having no one on the outside that can help them and, you know, not having any, any financial help as well to help get them out. So they just ended up staying there for years. I mean, one girl was there 10 years.
"She was one of the first girls to help me when I came in. She's from the Philippines. She told another girl to get off the mattress and to let me sleep.
"She brought me coffee, offered me food. She, you know, and everyone in the jail kind of said, like, don't trust anyone, but this is someone you can trust. She's been here 10 years. She's a lovely person.
";You know, she talked to me, like, I was obviously very anxious. I was very worried.
";And, you know, she kind of calmed me down and told me everything was going to be OK. But she had, yeah, there 10 years, she said."
TORI'S TEARS OF GRATITUDE
By GARY MENEELY
Exhausted Tori issued a special thank you message to Radha Stirling, the crusading human rights campaigner who first highlighted the flight attendant’s plight and sparked the campaign that led to her freedom.
She also thanked her family and friends, as well as the Taoiseach Simon Harris, Tanaiste Micheal Martin, the Irish Ambassador to the UAE, Alison Milton, and Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald for helping to secure her return home to Roscommon.
Ms McDonald had raised the matter in the Dail on Tuesday while local Roscommon-Galway TD Claire Kerrane had also pressed Tanaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Martin for help to resolve Tori’s situation.
Paying tribute to the embassy staff who worked to get her home, Tori said: “They kept in touch with us.
“Any time there was an update, they were phoning us, I know Micheal Martin was doing a lot behind the scenes as well.
“They all just worked as a team and they were amazing. I’m so grateful to all of them.”
Ms Towey also told how she celebrated her homecoming to Ireland by having cake at a family party in Roscommon on Thursday evening.
She said: “We went to my cousin’s house and had dinner and had some cake. They all had balloons there and everything, so that was really nice.
“And then I just came home and slept!”
As she recovers at home with relatives this weekend, travel lover Tori ruled out a return to Dubai.
In a live chat hosted by Ms Sterling on the social media site X, Tori said: “I don’t have any plans on going back, not any time soon anyways.
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“There was a time where I didn’t think it was even possible that I was going to be able to come back at all (to Ireland).
“So I’m just relieved and I suppose over the next few weeks I’m just going to rest and spend time with family and friends and then just go from there.”
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