Lankan doctor pleads not guilty for performing illegal FGM in UK
January 29, 2015 10:47 am
A Sri Lankan NHS doctor accused of performing female genital mutilation on a young mother has told jurors he regards the practice as abhorrent.
Dhanuson Dharmasena, 32, is accused of carrying out the illegal procedure when stitching the woman after she gave birth at the Whittington Hospital, north London, in 2012.
Dr Dharmasena, of Ilford, north-east London, denies the charge.
The trial is the first prosecution of its kind in the UK.
A second man, Hasan Mohamed, 41, denies encouraging and abetting the offence.
It is alleged that stitching Dr Dharmasena performed on the woman effectively re-did the FGM carried out on her as a six-year-old in Somalia.
What is FGM?
Female genital mutilation, often abbreviated to FGM is also known as female circumcision.
It involves procedures that include the partial or total removal of the external female genital organs for cultural or other non-medical reasons. It can also include stitching up the genitals.
It is practised in 29 countries in Africa and some countries in Asia and the Middle East, but is illegal in the UK.
Carrying out female genital mutilation carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
Anatomy of female genital mutilation
Taking to the witness box at London’s Southwark Crown Court, Dr Dharmasena said he believed there was “no medical justification for FGM”.
“I regarded FGM as an abhorrent practice that doesn’t have any justification in our society,” he said.
He revealed that he had never had any training concerning FGM, and had never seen a woman who had undergone the practice before he treated the mother-of-two, identified only as AB. - BBC
