A New South Wales supreme court judge says he has not seen any evidence that three people convicted of female genital mutilation charges will work to stamp out the practice in their community.

On Friday Justice Peter Johnson presided over a sentencing hearing for the three co-offenders, all of whom are connected to the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community.

The trio includes two women – the mother of the two girls who underwent FGM and a retired nurse – who were accused of arranging for the two young sisters’ clitorises to be cut in separate incidents in Sydney when the girls were aged about seven.

A high-ranking member of the religious community, Shabbir Mohammedbhai Vaziri, was found guilty by a jury of acting as an accessory after the fact.

The women’s lawyers have previously argued the procedure was symbolic, and that the retired nurse only touched the girls’ skin with a set of forceps.

Johnson said that act alone would be considered criminal assault.

But although the court heard the defendants were remorseful, Johnson did not think the evidence before him showed the three would actively oppose the future practice of female genital mutilation by members of the local Dawoodi Bohra community, symbolic or otherwise.

“I’m not sure that I have seen any of these accused saying they reject all practices of that sort,” he said.

Johnson has also been asked to consider whether an order banning journalists from identifying the retired nurse should remain in place.

The older woman’s lawyer has argued the ban is necessary to protect her safety, adding that the frail woman had been jostled by members of the media and received threatening phone calls.

But the crown prosecutor, Nanette Williams, said the freedom to identify an offender was a central feature of the principle of open justice.

“There are laws against stalking and harassing, and those laws can be invoked to prevent [the woman] from being subjected to any further harassment or calls, should that be the case,” Williams said.

The hearing continues.