Marcus Fakana, the British teenager who was released from a Dubai jail in July after being convicted of having consensual sex with a 17-year-old girl, died in a car crash in Tottenham, north London, on Friday, October 3.
Per BBC, Fakana, now 19, was in the passenger seat of the car involved in the accident. He later succumbed to his injuries in a hospital.
In the aftermath of the incident, the Met Police said that they tried to pull a car over, but they had to abandon a subsequent pursuit after 60 seconds because they could not keep up with the chase. The vehicle in question was said to have crashed into a truck when it was later found.
As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, Fakana was vacationing with his parents in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year when he and the then-17-year-old girl, who is also British, had the consensual sex, BBC reported. Though their relationship would be legal in the United Kingdom, the age of consent in UAE is 18.
Fakana was arrested and convicted in December after the girl’s mother discovered his conversations and photos with her daughter and alerted Dubai police. That was after the girl returned to the United Kingdom.
Detained in Dubai group stated that Fakana was ultimately freed after Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, granted him a royal pardon.
“He was grateful for the compassion shown to him by the British public, and his experiences gave him a renewed focus on Christianity and prayer,” Fakana’s lawyer and founder of the Detained in Dubai group, Radha Stirling, said.
“Marcus was thankful to have regained his freedom and was looking forward to building a positive future.”
Stirling continued: “Marcus spent the majority of this year in a Dubai prison which no doubt caused him long lasting mental anguish. It’s sad that of all of 2025, he was only free for the three months from the 3rd of July until the 3rd of October.”
Authorities have since arrested a suspect, identified as Marwaan Mohamed Huseen, in connection with the fatal car crash. Huseen, 19, has since been charged with dangerous driving, driving without insurance, driving without a licence, and failing to stop.
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