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Charles Foster acts for the acquitted doctor in first FGM prosecution

9th March 2015


Charles Foster represented Dr. Dhanuson Dharmasena in the first ever prosecution under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003.

Dr. Dharmasena was a junior doctor who attended a Somali woman in labour. The woman had been infibulated as a child, and had subsequently been deinfibulated. The doctor made an incision through scar tissue in order to catheterise the urethra prior to effecting instrumental delivery. He then inserted a suture to stop bleeding from the wound. The prosecution said that this constituted FGM. The trial was contested for two and a half weeks before Sweeney J at Southwark Crown Court. The jury quickly acquitted.

Charles was instructed by Richard Privett at RadcliffesLeBrasseur. He was led by Zoe Johnson QC.


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