Man found guilty of conspiracy to commit female genital mutilation - rarely prosecuted in the UK

[IwantToRetire]

A former University of Nottingham student has been found guilty of conspiracy to commit female genital mutilation following a landmark case for the East Midlands. After a two-week trial at Nottingham Crown Court, a jury of six men and six women took around five hours to convict Emad Kaky of the rarely prosecuted offence.

The trial heard how the 47-year-old’s role in the crime was uncovered by a witness who told the police they had seen messages from him in which he said the alleged victim “is not going to die, a lot of people are practising it”. Prosecutors at the trial, the first of its kind to be held in Nottingham, said further messages which were sent by the defendant, included him telling the same witness “all of my tribe had done it and they lead a normal life, nothing happened to them” and “this is not killing, this is something normal.”

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/ex-university-nottingham-student-found-9539920

I couldn't find a thread about FGM in the UK, although I am sure there was one.

From googling can only find these other prosecutions in the UK:

Mother of three-year-old is first person convicted of FGM in UK
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/01/fgm-mother-of-three-year-old-first-person-convicted-in-uk

Second UK conviction for FGM
https://www.britishjournalofmidwifery.com/content/comment/second-uk-conviction-for-fgm/

FORWARD is a long established African led women's organisation:

Access to specialist services

• Help to access FGM specialist clinics, including accompaniment and support in translation (Arabic, Somali, Amharic, French and others). List of specialist clinics in the UK
• Help to access other specialist services e.g legal services or advice
• Casework support including accompaniment to social services
• Referring and signposting to English for Speakers of Other Language (ESOL), IT and other education/training opportunities

https://www.forwarduk.org.uk/how-we-work-for-women-and-girls/support-services/

We’ve had a few threads discussing FGM in the UK, including:
• thread on the 2024 prosecution for a crime 18 years earlier
• 2023 discussion of the lack of NHS care available for survivors
• 2023 discussion of the fact only there had only been 2 convictions in the 20 years since FGM was made illegal

Ugh. It’s so absolutely sickening.

Good to see another prosecution. FGM has been a crime since 1985 with various revisions since then. Getting the message into the relevant communities and empowering those speaking out against it it so important - yet seems to have limited effect?

Glad to see this is being prosecuted.

It's not clear from the news report, but I hope they got him before the child was taken out of the country.

It's sickening that it's neccessary, but these stories need to be widely publicised to raise awareness, both generally and that if you take part in this crime you are not safe.

Hopefully it will encourage others to report.

It's not clear from the news report, but I hope they got him before the child was taken out of the country.

You are right. That's disturbing.

Hope she is safe.

I think my search must have used the wrong key words but thanks for the links.

So it seems there have been 2 now a 3rd prosecution in the UK.

And I was thinking that althought it might be hard to compile without breaching confidentiality, how sucessful the services that are now meant to be in place to help women escape from this threat to them.

ie number of women rescued / saved from FGM.

There does seem to be some statistical reporting in the NHS (England), but presumably means there are many others who do not have contact with the NHS.

Key Facts

• There were 2,090 individual1 women and girls who had an attendance where FGM was identified in the period January 2024 - March 2024. These accounted for 3,900 attendances2 reported at NHS trusts and GP practices where FGM was identified.
• There were 945 newly recorded3 women and girls in the period January 2024 - March 2024. Newly recorded means that this is the first time they have appeared in this dataset. It does not indicate how recently their FGM was undertaken, nor does it mean that this is the woman or girl’s first attendance for FGM. The number of newly recorded women and girls has reduced over time. This is to be expected as the longer the collection continues, the greater the chance of a woman or girl having been recorded in it previously.
• Since April 2015, 37,525 individual1 women and girls had an attendance where FGM was identified.
• In the period January 2024 - March 2024, 93 NHS trusts and 26 GP practices submitted one or more FGM attendance records.

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/female-genital-mutilation/january---march-2024

https://www.cps.gov.uk/east-midlands/news/man-convicted-conspiring-commit-fgm-against-young-girl-legal-first

It seems he had also arranged for her to be forced into an illegal marriage. She is described as a "young girl". Mercifully it looks like one of the witnesses helped her escape back to the UK before his plans were enacted.

Before the crimes could be carried out, Kaky’s plans were uncovered by a witness who arranged for the victim to travel back to the UK and reported him to the police.
https://www.cps.gov.uk/east-midlands/news/man-convicted-conspiring-commit-fgm-against-young-girl-legal-first

That's good to know.

I should have looked for CPS statement as the local news report is bit muddled.

Interesting to see from that statement that the case rested on whether FGM is illegal in Iraq.

He was also charged with forced marriage.

It's good to see that he's been remanded in custody, it's often indicative of a long sentence.

He's Iraqi - do they do fgm in Iraq? I thought it was a sub Saharan African thing

Presumably it's his daughter? Weird that it doesn't state their relationship

Good no more than he deserves or anyone else that takes part in this barbaric practice.
I can never fathom out ..if you're born with it ..why the need to mutilate what nature intended.

More than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where FGM is practiced.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation

FGM is found in communities practising a variety of different religions, including Christianity, Islam and Judaism (Jews).

Although FGM is not required by any mainstream religion, sometimes people mistakenly believe that it is their religious duty. Sometimes they are told this by their family, or a religious leader, who also incorrectly believe it is a religious requirement.
https://www.forwarduk.org.uk/who-we-work-with/faith-community-leaders/fgm-and-religion/

The CPS page says this in a footnote:

”We remind all of the risks of jigsaw identification. As the defendant in this case has been named, there should be no reporting of details which link him to the victim
Jigsaw identification: The legal protection covers not just immediate identifying information such as the name, address, or images of the victim, but any other information which, on its own or pieced together with other information, would likely lead to members of the public identifying the victim.”

What an abusive fucker, I hope he goes to prison for a long time.

And I hope that little girl is okay.

He's Iraqi - do they do fgm in Iraq? I thought it was a sub Saharan African thing

it’s not massively common in Iraq compared to elsewhere (just under 10%)

I find it frustrating that the data is clouded by firstly, authorities not reporting at all, secondly, that some do not specify the type, thirdly that it includes cases where a woman has been identified as having undergone FGM but has a daughter (so they're counting something that hasn't happened), fourthly, multiple visits are treated as cases, so could be overcounted and finally, that it includes cases where adult women have made a decision regarding their own bodies and chosen to have intimate piercings.

To combat anything, it has to be reliably recorded in the first place - to doublecount and add in incidences where it hasn't actually happened or is being misinterpreted as such does not help.

Glad he’s being prosecuted, hopefully the cps will get braver about bringing these cases

Very common in the Kurdish areas, and Kaky is a Kurdish surname.

This is heartening, three cheers for the witness who helped the girl including getting her back to the UK!

He's 47; why is he being described as a 'former student'?

That's because I quoted from a local newspaper who wanted a tie in.

As i said upthread should probably have looked for a better written account, but was late and night.

Yes I realised i had forgotten to say whoever it was, family, friend, responsible adult, totally brilliant.

To whoever you are

The article says he was a PhD student there at the time of the offence. Presumably a mature student.