Unnamed couple plead not guilty to FGM charges

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

A couple who cannot be named for legal reasons pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to carrying out an act of female genital mutilation on their then one-year-old daughter at a Dublin address on 16 September 2016. They also pleaded not guilty to a charge of child cruelty on the same date.

The proceedings were reported on 27 November 2019. The trial was continuing before Judge Elma Sheahan and a jury after closing speeches.

Prosecuting counsel Shane Costelloe SC said the parents’ explanation was that the child had moved swiftly backwards, fallen on a toy and injured herself. He said a doctor had given evidence that the injury could not have been sustained in that way. He told the jury that if it decided the explanation was not reasonably possible, the accused were lying.

Mr Costelloe said the State could not say the parents had carried out the act, but alleged they had permitted it and were secondary participants who aided, abetted or procured it. He said the evidence was that they had never left their daughter and, if FGM was done, they were present and failed to intervene.

Colman Fitzgerald SC, defending the man, said both accused denied permitting mutilation and would not countenance it. He said a lie would not automatically establish guilt. Patrick Gageby SC, defending the woman, said she had not seen the child fall on the toy. He argued that an act of FGM would have required restraint or sedation, and that there was no evidence of either.