Bristol FGM case against father dropped Published duration 22 February 2018

A father accused of allowing his six-year-old daughter to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) has been acquitted.

The 29-year-old, who at one point drove a private hire vehicle, is alleged to have confessed to a passenger that he had allowed her to be cut.

However, Judge Julian Lambert described the medical evidence as "wholly inconclusive at its highest".

He instructed jurors at Bristol Crown Court to find the defendant not guilty.

The man from Bristol, who cannot be identified in order to protect the child's identity, had been charged with cruelty on a child under the age of 16 - which he had denied.

It was the crown's case an injury to the girl's genitalia was FGM.

The court was told the case relied "largely, if not entirely upon, on an alleged admission made in a taxi journey".

"There is no evidence put by the prosecution as to when or how any alleged mutilation is said to have taken place," Judge Lambert told the court.

He described the prosecution case against the man, who is originally from Somalia, as "deeply troubling".

'Inconsistent'

He also said the account of the key witness - an anti-FGM campaigner - was "inconsistent".

"X [the girl] has always denied she had any form of mutilation. The defendant says no such thing took place.

"The jury cannot convict the defendant of this offence unless they are sure that [the father] knowingly exposed X."

Previously the jury had heard how a medical examination of the girl revealed a small lesion - "a couple of millimetres at most" - on her genitalia.

However, two doctors questioned said they could not confirm FGM had taken place.

"We respect the judge's decision and will not be appealing," a spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said.

The practice of FGM has been illegal in the UK since 1985.