Wife loses adultery plea

A BRITISH mother today lost an appeal against her conviction for adultery in Dubai.

Marnie Pearce, 40, who is originally from Bracknell, Berkshire, had her jail sentence reduced from six to three months by Dubai's Appeal Court. She was also ordered to pay a fine of £595 and will be deported.

Ms Pearce was found guilty of adultery by a Dubai court in November after being accused of cheating on her Egyptian husband, from whom she is now divorced. She was arrested in March last year, having been accused of adultery with a British man. She insisted that she was innocent and that the man was only a friend.

She said she feared losing custody of her two young sons if she went to prison. Ms Pearce met her husband in Oman and married him in the Seychelles in September 1999.

They had two children, Laith, seven, and Ziad, four, and moved to Dubai, but their marriage eventually broke down. It was not immediately clear when she would have to start her sentence.