The State dropped the charges against two parents, who were due to be retried for the female genital mutilation of their daughter, after a new report “broadly” agreed with the conclusions of an expert retained by the couple that the child had never been subjected to the procedure, a court has heard.
The Court of Appeal has now reserved judgment on a bid by the couple to have their conviction for the female genital mutilation (FGM) of the child, which was quashed in 2021, declared a miscarriage of justice.
The trial was the first of its kind in Ireland and was the subject of an RTÉ documentary late last year.
Lawyers for the couple, who are originally from a French-speaking region of Africa, say that an examination of the child by Swedish FGM expert Prof Birgitta Essen in December 2023 proved that she had never been subjected to the procedure.
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Hugh Hartnett SC, for the child’s father, said the couple’s conviction in 2019 and subsequent two-year imprisonment amounted to a miscarriage of justice.
Brendan Grehan SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, argued the trial proceeded in accordance with law and proper procedures. He said the DPP had acted in good faith at all times and any review of the evidence would show there was a “full credible case for the bringing of charges”.
Addressing the court on Friday, Mr Grehan said the then one-year-old child presented to hospital in September 2016 with injuries, the cause of which has not been resolved.
The parents told doctors that the injuries were caused by a fall on to a plastic toy, an explanation that was rejected by experts who gave evidence at the first trial.
However, Mr Grehan said the DPP now has no intention of pursuing the charges against the couple. Following Dr Essen’s examination in December 2023, Mr Grehan said an expert retained by the DPP, Prof Cecilia Berger, reviewed the case and “broadly speaking, agreed with the conclusions of Prof Essen”, resulting in the charges against the couple being dropped.
To issue a certificate of miscarriage of justice, the Court of Appeal must be satisfied that new evidence proves, on the balance of probabilities, that the couple are innocent.
Mr Justice John Edwards, presiding, with Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, said they have a lot to think about and reserved judgment.
The couple went on trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in November 2019 having pleaded not guilty to carrying out an act of FGM on their then one-year-old daughter at an address in Dublin on September 16th, 2016.
The 43-year-old man and 33-year-old woman also pleaded not guilty to child cruelty on the same day. They were found guilty of the FGM charge in 2019 and it is this conviction that the couple wish to be declared a miscarriage of justice.
They spent two years in prison before their convictions were quashed when the Court of Appeal found the trial had been “unfair” because of “serious and far-reaching inaccuracies” in how the parents’ testimony was translated to the jury. A jury was unable to agree a verdict following a retrial in 2023 and, following Prof Essen’s examination and a subsequent review, the DPP decided not to pursue the charges.
