British Doctor Under Fire for Female Circumcision

A British doctor, Dhanuson Dharmasena, 32 is under fire for female genital mutilation (FGM), otherwise known as female circumcision. Court told that Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena carried out procedure at a London hospital with encouragement from Hasan Mohamed

The doctor, of Ilford, London, denies the charge in what is the first prosecution of its kind in the UK. A second man, Hasan Mohamed, 41, denies encouraging and abetting the offence.

Mounting the first prosecution against someone for carrying out FGM in England and Wales, the Crown alleged that Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena, a junior registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Whittington hospital, had mutilated a 24-year-old mother by the manner in which he had sewn her up after childbirth.

The woman had undergone type 3 FGM – in which part of the labia are sewn together – as a child in Africa (Somalia), and during labour the doctor had made two cuts to her vaginal opening to ensure the safe delivery of her baby. When Dharmasena sewed her up, a midwife warned him that what he had done was illegal. He asked a consultant for advice, and the more senior doctor said it would be “painful and humiliating” to remove the stitch he had made, and it remained in place, the court heard.

“It is the stitching back together by Dr Dharmasena which the prosecution says is an offence under the act,” Kate Bex, prosecuting, told Southwark crown court.

Kate Bex, also told jurors that FGM was "very dangerous for a woman's health and psychological well-being".

"It can lead to severe health problems and, in some cases, to death. FGM causes gynaecological, urological and obstetric problems in women, chronic pain and sexual dysfunction," she said. 

"It increases the risk of death in childbirth to both mother and baby."

The doctor, who qualified in 2005, and began specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology in 2008 told the court that he only obeyed the client’s wish.

He said: "At no point in time did I intentionally or deliberately want to cause any harm to the patient. I had obeyed all of the patient's wishes."

The case continues…