Another FGM case fails as judge blasts quality of evidence

A JUDGE has condemned prosecutors for using ‘deeply troubling’ evidence gathered in a taxi to try a father in court for female genital mutilation.

Prosecutors had hoped their case against the 29-year-old Uber driver – based on a conversation with a passenger – would result in Britain’s first FGm conviction.

There have been only two other cases brought over FGm – one, involving a 49-year-old from London, is ongoing while the other prosecution, in 2015, failed.

That comes despite campaigners’ claims that thousands of girls in the UK are victims of the painful procedure. In the latest case, the Somalian had been accused of allowing his seven-year-old daughter to undergo the procedure.

He had been charged after a two-year police investigation – but walked free after his three- day trial collapsed.

The father, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was said to have told anti-FGm campaigner Sami Ullah that his daughter had undergone the procedure.

After mr Ullah, a junior trustee with charity Integrate, reported him to police, experts were sent to examine the defendant’s three daughters at their Bristol home.

But mr Ullah’s slapdash account of the ten-minute conversation in march 2016 was branded ‘inconsistent’ by the judge. Doctors found a small mark on the youngest girl but noted the seven-year-old – who denied being harmed – appeared happy and well looked-after.

Paediatrician Dr Lindsay mackintosh admitted she had no idea what really caused the 2-3mm mark and it was two months before a gynaecologist examined blurry photos of the alleged mutilation, which appeared to have healed over.

Delivering his ruling at Bristol Crown Court, Judge Julian Lambert described the medical evidence as ‘wholly inconclusive at its highest’ as it relied on the taxi conversation. He said: ‘There is no evidence put by the prosecution as to when or how any alleged mutilation is said to have taken place.

‘The evidence in this case is deeply troubling. I cannot, in good conscience, say, “There is a case in which a reasonable jury properly directed could convict this defendant”... The medical evidence was inconclusive.’

The jury was directed to find the father not guilty of cruelty to a child under 16. Yesterday the CPS said it would not appeal the decision.

Campaigners accused prose- cutors of wasting public money and questioned why Avon and Somerset Police trusted mr Ullah’s inconsistent evidence.

The force, which has a dedicated lead FGm officer, has close links with Integrate UK, the equalities charity that mr Ullah worked for.

The force had briefed media outlets about the upcoming trial and worked with Channel 4’s Dispatches in anticipation of a possible guilty verdict.

naana Otoo-Oyortey, of antiFGm charity Forward, accused police of failing to investigate the case properly.

She said: ‘The authorities must ensure that they obtain sufficient evidence and have used the proper experts to help get that evidence.’

Detective Chief Inspector Leanne Pook said she was ‘100 per cent’ confident that officers had gathered all available evidence and there was ‘a whole host of complex answers’ to why there had never been a successful FGm prosecution.

In 2015, Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena was cleared of carrying out FGm on a new mother in the first prosecution of its kind in the UK. His acquittal led to accusations the case had been a CPS ‘show trial’.

Integrate UK said it was ‘shameful’ that there had still not been a successful FGm prosecution in Britain.

The CPS said: ‘ This was an unusual and unprecedented case for the prosecution.

‘Where we feel there is sufficient evidence, and it is in the public interest to pursue, it is right that we put cases before the court.’

‘Evidence was inconclusive’