Unnamed couple cleared of FGM after miscarriage of justice ruling

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The unnamed couple’s FGM convictions were declared a miscarriage of justice by the Court of Appeal on 19 June 2026. The ruling followed their convictions for carrying out female genital mutilation on their daughter at a Dublin address.

The court found that newly discovered expert evidence showed, on the balance of probabilities, that the applicants were factually innocent. It granted them certificates under section 9(1)(a) of the Criminal Procedure Act 1993.

The Court of Appeal had quashed the convictions in 2021 after finding the trial unfair because of serious inaccuracies in translation of the parents’ testimony. A jury at their 2023 retrial could not agree on a verdict, and the Director of Public Prosecutions later dropped the charges.