U.K. MOTHER OF THREE-YEAR-OLD GUILTY OF GENITAL MUTILATION.

LONDON • A London mother was found guilty of subjecting her three-year-old daughter to female genital mutilation on Friday in Britain’s first conviction for FGM — more than 30 years after the practice was outlawed.

The Ugandan mother of two, who cannot be named for legal reasons, could face up to 14 years in jail.

Police and anti-FGM campaigners said the conviction sent a strong message that FGM was child abuse and would be prosecuted.

“It’s going to send a shockwave around the community. It’s a wake-up call. It will be a huge deterrent,” said activist Hibo Wardere.

British interior minister Sajid Javid welcomed the “landmark conviction.”

“(FGM) is a sickening, depraved, form of child abuse and we will do all we can to ensure all perpetrators are brought to justice,” he tweeted.

Justice Philippa Whipple adjourned sentencing until March 8.

Police launched an investigation after the girl’s parents rushed her to hospital on Aug. 28, 2017, following severe bleeding and doctors found three cuts to her genitalia.

In the following months the mother performed dozens of witchcraft spells — two involving cows’ tongues with nails embedded in them — to try to silence investigators and the director of public prosecutions.

The girl’s Ghanaian father, who was also on trial, was acquitted of FGM and of failing to protect his daughter from the risk of FGM.

During the trial, the 37-year-old mother told London’s Central Criminal Court that her daughter had hurt herself falling from a kitchen worktop at their East London flat.

But the girl told police she had been held down and cut by a “witch.” Her older brother later wrote a letter to police saying his mother had cut her.

The court heard the mother turned to witchcraft to try to halt police investigations following her arrest.

Aside from the cows’ tongues, police found 40 limes in a freezer at her home containing the names of people involved in the case with messages such “I freeze your mouth” and “I freeze you out of my life.”

An expert on FGM said the practice was not connected to witchcraft.

However, the jury heard that the mother had sought help from a “prophet” to “cleanse” her daughter, via an online contact in Nigeria.

The mother, a former care worker, said she did not come from an ethnic group that practised FGM and no motive was given in court.

An estimated 137,000 women and girls in England and Wales have undergone FGM, which affects diaspora communities from many countries including Somalia, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Sudan, Nigeria and Egypt.

Campaigners say the ritual — often justified for cultural or religious reasons — is underpinned by the desire to control female sexuality.