Woman, 39, found guilty of aiding the female genital mutilation of a three-year-old British girl during trip to Kenya

26 October 2023, 15:37

A woman has been found guilty of assisting the female mutilation of a three-year-old British girl during a trip to Kenya.

In a landmark case, jurors at the Old Bailey found Amina Noor, 39, guilty of aiding the horrific procedure during a trip to the African country in 2006.

Noor is now the first person to be convicted in England over committing the crime overseas.

Read More: Runaway aristocrat Constance Marten and lover Mark Gordon plead not guilty to baby daughter's manslaughter

Read More: 'Why do people do this?': Girl, 10, shot in leg by rampaging gunman in Maine speaks of ordeal as 22 killed at bowling alley

The court was told that Noor had taken the little girl to a 'clinic' via tuk-tuk where she was asked to wait outside the private house as the child was mutilated.

Her crime only came to light in November 2018 when the victim told her English teacher what had happened.

The victim, who is now aged 21, cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Noor had earlier told her trial she feared being "disowned and cursed" by community members if she did not take part.

She claimed she thought the little girl would have been injected or pierced in a 'procedure' known as 'Gudniin' - the Arabic word for circumcision.

Medical experts who examined the child found she had not been simply injected but had suffered severe mutilation of her genitals, which most likely would have caused significant bleeding and extreme pain.

The landmark case saw the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) working alongside the police and National Crime Agency to prove that during her visit to Kenya, Noor knew some form of FGM was being committed against the victim.

Noor, who faces up to 14 years in jail, will be sentenced at a later date. She did not react as the Somali interpreter told her the verdict.

To date, the only other successful prosecution of under the FM Act of 2003, was in 2019 when a Ugandan woman from Walthamstow, east London, was jailed for 11 years for cutting a three-year-old girl.

It is estimated that 94 per cent of Somali women living in Kenya undergo the horrendous procedure in the mistaken belief that it is a religious requirement.