DHARMASENA:DOCTOR PRESSURED INTO FGM BY CO-DEFENDANT
A doctor accused of performing female genital mutilation on a young woman who had just given birth was pressured into it by his co-defendant, a court heard.
Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena, 32, is alleged to have performed the illegal procedure shortly after helping deliver her first child at Whittington Hospital in Archway, north London.
The now 26-year-old mother-of-two, known only as AB, underwent FGM aged six in Somalia, London’s Southwark Crown Court heard.
Dharmasena is said to have cut stitches to facilitate her birth, before restitching her afterwards.
He is the first person to be charged with FGM and is standing trial alongside Hasan Mohamed, 41, who is accused of encouraging him to commit the offence.
The jury today heard Mohamed had ‘repeatedly and persistently’ requested the procedure.
Making her closing speech to the jury today (Tue), prosecutor Kate Bex said: ‘The prosecution case is Dr Dharmasena, ordinarily a very good, caring and competent doctor, found himself in the position where Hasan Mohamed was interfering.
‘He kept coming over and insisting that AB’s anterior incision was repaired so as to put her back in the same situation she was in when she arrived.’
She added: ‘The prosecution case is in these circumstances Dr Dharmasena obeyed the patient’s wishes, but that it was not clinically necessary or therefore connected with the labour and birth.
‘He did it the way he did because of Mr Mohamed’s insistence.’
Dharmasena, who has said he despised the practice of FGM, has told the jury he acted only in the medical interests of the patient.
But Ms Bex said he has now given three different accounts of what happened on 24 November 2012.
‘It is sometimes said that consistency is the hallmark of truth,’ she said.
‘I suggest that there have been three different versions, all tailored slightly to a developing situation.
‘The second after legal advice, the third to you following expert evidence.’
Ms Bex said the medic gave different accounts to the hospital, police and in court.
‘He told the trust he was not sure how to repair.
‘He told the police “I was aware of the general position taken by the Royal College.
‘To you: “I did it because it was clinically necessary”.’
She told the jury that if they decide the case on the evidence then the verdicts should be guilty.
Dharmasena, of Ilford, Essex, denies one count of female genital mutilation.
Mohamed is facing one count of abetting Dharmasena in committing the offence.
FGM has been illegal in this country since 1985 and in 2003 the maximum sentence was increased from five to 14 years in jail.
Mohamed, of Highbury, north London, denies one count of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commissioning of the procedure.
The trial continues.
Ends
