DHARMASENA: FGM DOCTOR CLEARED AFTER JUST 30 MINUTES
A doctor accused of carrying out female genital mutilation on a young woman who had just given birth were cleared of the charge in less than 30 minutes today (weds).
Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena, 32, was accused of performing the procedure on the woman shortly after helping deliver her first child at Whittington Hospital in Archway, north London.
He was the first person to be charged with FGM and stood trial alongside Hasan Mohamed, 41, who was accused of encouraging him to commit the offence.
But today the pair were acquitted by a jury after a 13 day trial at Southwark Crown Court.
Dharmasena and Mohamed showed no emotion but there were muffled cheers as the verdicts were delivered.
The doctor insisted he despised the barbaric practice, calling it ‘aberrant’ with ‘no place’ in society.
The woman, known only as AB, gave birth to her first child on 24 November 2012, where Dharmasena oversaw proceedings as the junior registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology.
The woman, 24 at the time, first underwent the process in Somalia aged six.
The highly dangerous procedure left her at risk of infection, haemorrhage and even death.
She previously had to have surgery at Kingston Hospital, southwest London, because of complications it caused when she had sex.
The woman gave birth to her first child on 24 November 2012 and Dharmasena was said to have stitched her in a procedure that amounted to FGM.
Dharmasena, who has been suspended by the GMC since last March, said he had no training in FGM and insisted he acted only in the medical interests of the patient.
Married Dharmasena explained that he came to the UK from Sri Lanka when he was four years old, and was in the midst of his post-graduated training when he treated the woman
Dharmasena said the extent of his knowledge was ‘basic’ discussions with colleagues in informal environments.
He had neither observed nor carried out the procedure in the past.
Dharmasena said FGM was not practiced in Hindu culture, and added ‘there is no medical justification for FGM.’
‘I regard it as an aberrant practice that doesn’t have any place in our society,’ he said.
Dharmasena had not met AB before her labour on 24 November when he was buzzed in because of her baby’s deteriorating condition.
FGM has been illegal in this country since 1985 and in 2003 the maximum sentence was increased from five to 14 years in jail.
Dharmasena, of Rushden Gardens, Ilford, Essex, was cleared of one count of carrying out FGM.
Mohamed, of Liverpool Road, Highbury, north London, was cleared of count of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commissioning of the procedure.
