Two held in FGM probe after man and girl stopped at Heathrow Published duration 26 July 2014

A man and a woman have been arrested in London for conspiracy to commit female genital mutilation (FGM).

Police stopped a man who was travelling with an 11-year-old girl at Terminal 4 of Heathrow Airport on Friday morning.

They had arrived that morning on a flight from Kampala, Uganda.

A woman, 40, was arrested in Hackney, east London, on Saturday, while the man, 72, a Ugandan national, was arrested in Newham, east London.

With concerns for her welfare, specialist officers took the girl - a UK national - into the care of social services.

The pair were arrested under Section 2 of FGM Act 2003 namely aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring a girl to carry out FGM on herself, Scotland Yard said.

Both have been taken to an east London police station where they remain in custody.