Re: Australia Supreme Court criminal trial for Bohra FGM practice
Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 5:36 am
Nurse accused of FGM ‘horrified’ when child protection workers investigated
Court hears former nurse at centre of Australia’s first FGM trial panicked because she ‘thought she had broken the law by touching the girls genitals without medical reason’
The New South Wales supreme court where Australia’s first prosecution of female genital mutilation has been taking place.
A former nurse accused of carrying out female genital mutilation on two sisters has described her actions as “allowing the skin to sniff the steel” and spoke of being horrified when child protection workers became involved.
The mother of the two girls, who are known as C1 and C2, and the former nurse, KM, are accused of carrying out FGM on the sisters when they were each aged seven years old in a “khatna” ceremony.
It is the first prosecution of FGM in Australia and KM was called to the stand of the New South Wales supreme court on Tuesday to give evidence about the ceremonies.
KM told the court she at first refused when asked to carry out khatna by the girls’ mother, known as A2, concerned that it was not legal in Australia, but relented.
She said part of the ceremony included placing steel forceps on the genitals “allowing the skin to sniff the steel”.
KM allegedly undertook khatna on the older girl, C1, in Woollongong between 2010 and 2011 and said the girl was a bit anxious about the ceremony and was naked from the waist down lying on a bed when KM entered the room.
“She said ‘it hurt me’, my hands were trembling. I’m insulin dependent diabetic and it was way past my lunchtime ... I may have touched her a bit harder on one side because my hands were trembling and that’s when she said ‘it hurt me Mum’,” KM said.
KM said she had discussed the khatna with the girls’ mother, but not their father.
“We don’t talk about these things to men,” she said.
Asked why she decided to carry out the ceremonies after at first being hesitant, KM responded: “I felt I was helping [the girls’ mother]. It’s an age-old ritual that’s been carried out. Why? I have never found out. When my grandmother pulled me over and said now you have a daughter and this is the ceremony they have to go through, I never asked my grandmother as to why, she explained to me this is the way it has to be done.”
KM said when A2 rang her to tell her the Department of Community Services (Docs) and police were investigating she was worried.
“I was horrified, because I thought if Docs have come then I must have done something wrong,” she said. “Because I’d done the ceremony and I thought it could have been illegal in this country, though I did not think that at the time when I was doing it.”
KM’s barrister, Stuart Bouveng, said when police began investigating, KM panicked because she “thought she had broken the law by touching the girls genitals without medical reason”.
During evidence on Tuesday, the doctor who examined the two sisters said it was possible they had been mutilated but she could not conclude one way or the other.
Dr Susan Marks, a paediatrician and head of the child protection unit at Westmead children’s hospital, examined the girls after police began investigating. She could not “visualise” the hood of the clitoris on either girl and said it was possible it had been cut or was simply tucked behind the hood.
There was no obvious scarring but Marks said it was possible it could have healed.
“I can’t answer the question if it’s normal or abnormal [not to be able to visualise the clitoris] because it could be either,” she said.
Marks said there was a lot of medical opinion in literature that says injuries to the genital area could heal without leaving a scar.
She was also questioned on how much blood there would be if the clitoris of a seven-year-old girl was cut
“If doing a procedure and you did a cut and there’s bleeding you would use a swab or cotton,” she said when asked what the volume of blood would be to deal with.
“There would be bleeding but there wouldn’t necessarily be much at all.”
Marks said she did not find an injury in the examination of either girl and it was possible there was no injury.
She also could not exclude the possibility of type one or type four FGM. Type one is partial removal of the clitoris while type four is any harmful procedure done for non-medical reasons that is not included in other definitions of FGM.
The prosecution closed its case on Tuesday after almost six weeks of evidence.
Court hears former nurse at centre of Australia’s first FGM trial panicked because she ‘thought she had broken the law by touching the girls genitals without medical reason’
The New South Wales supreme court where Australia’s first prosecution of female genital mutilation has been taking place.
A former nurse accused of carrying out female genital mutilation on two sisters has described her actions as “allowing the skin to sniff the steel” and spoke of being horrified when child protection workers became involved.
The mother of the two girls, who are known as C1 and C2, and the former nurse, KM, are accused of carrying out FGM on the sisters when they were each aged seven years old in a “khatna” ceremony.
It is the first prosecution of FGM in Australia and KM was called to the stand of the New South Wales supreme court on Tuesday to give evidence about the ceremonies.
KM told the court she at first refused when asked to carry out khatna by the girls’ mother, known as A2, concerned that it was not legal in Australia, but relented.
She said part of the ceremony included placing steel forceps on the genitals “allowing the skin to sniff the steel”.
KM allegedly undertook khatna on the older girl, C1, in Woollongong between 2010 and 2011 and said the girl was a bit anxious about the ceremony and was naked from the waist down lying on a bed when KM entered the room.
“She said ‘it hurt me’, my hands were trembling. I’m insulin dependent diabetic and it was way past my lunchtime ... I may have touched her a bit harder on one side because my hands were trembling and that’s when she said ‘it hurt me Mum’,” KM said.
KM said she had discussed the khatna with the girls’ mother, but not their father.
“We don’t talk about these things to men,” she said.
Asked why she decided to carry out the ceremonies after at first being hesitant, KM responded: “I felt I was helping [the girls’ mother]. It’s an age-old ritual that’s been carried out. Why? I have never found out. When my grandmother pulled me over and said now you have a daughter and this is the ceremony they have to go through, I never asked my grandmother as to why, she explained to me this is the way it has to be done.”
KM said when A2 rang her to tell her the Department of Community Services (Docs) and police were investigating she was worried.
“I was horrified, because I thought if Docs have come then I must have done something wrong,” she said. “Because I’d done the ceremony and I thought it could have been illegal in this country, though I did not think that at the time when I was doing it.”
KM’s barrister, Stuart Bouveng, said when police began investigating, KM panicked because she “thought she had broken the law by touching the girls genitals without medical reason”.
During evidence on Tuesday, the doctor who examined the two sisters said it was possible they had been mutilated but she could not conclude one way or the other.
Dr Susan Marks, a paediatrician and head of the child protection unit at Westmead children’s hospital, examined the girls after police began investigating. She could not “visualise” the hood of the clitoris on either girl and said it was possible it had been cut or was simply tucked behind the hood.
There was no obvious scarring but Marks said it was possible it could have healed.
“I can’t answer the question if it’s normal or abnormal [not to be able to visualise the clitoris] because it could be either,” she said.
Marks said there was a lot of medical opinion in literature that says injuries to the genital area could heal without leaving a scar.
She was also questioned on how much blood there would be if the clitoris of a seven-year-old girl was cut
“If doing a procedure and you did a cut and there’s bleeding you would use a swab or cotton,” she said when asked what the volume of blood would be to deal with.
“There would be bleeding but there wouldn’t necessarily be much at all.”
Marks said she did not find an injury in the examination of either girl and it was possible there was no injury.
She also could not exclude the possibility of type one or type four FGM. Type one is partial removal of the clitoris while type four is any harmful procedure done for non-medical reasons that is not included in other definitions of FGM.
The prosecution closed its case on Tuesday after almost six weeks of evidence.