The Court of Appeal has certified that HM and BO suffered a miscarriage of justice after new medical evidence showed, on the balance of probabilities, that they were factually innocent of offences involving the alleged female genital mutilation of their young daughter.
The couple had been convicted in the Circuit Criminal Court in November 2019 of female genital mutilation and child cruelty. HM received concurrent sentences of five years and six months and three years. BO received concurrent terms of four years and nine months and two years and nine months.
The case arose after their daughter, identified only as S, was brought to Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin in September 2016 with severe bleeding from a genital injury. Doctors treating her formed the view that she had undergone Type 1 FGM, involving partial or total removal of the clitoris. The parents maintained that the injury resulted from an accidental fall on a toy.
Their convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in November 2021 because HM's trial testimony had been materially distorted by inaccurate interpretation. A retrial followed in 2023, at which the medical evidence was disputed by Professor Birgitta Essén.
Professor Essén subsequently physically examined S in December 2023 and reported that her external genital anatomy, including the clitoris, was intact and showed no signs of FGM. A further expert retained by the prosecution, Dr Berger, independently reviewed the material in 2024 and likewise concluded that the injuries were not compatible with FGM.
The Director of Public Prosecutions then entered a nolle prosequi in July 2024, ending the prosecution.
In the present ruling, the Court of Appeal held that the later medical material amounted to newly discovered facts for the purposes of section 9 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1993. It also held that such facts need not have been the reason the original convictions were quashed.
On the only medical evidence now before it, the court found HM and BO factually innocent and granted both a miscarriage-of-justice certificate.