On Friday the Evening Standard broke the story of a three-year-old girl who needed emergency surgery after allegedly being subjected to female genital mutilation. London has the largest FGM-affected population in the UK and earlier this year a Londoner was cleared of arranging FGM on his daughter when she was nine.
The medical evidence proved the child had been subjected to FGM but the jury did not believe the child’s story that her father had arranged for her to be cut twice between 2010 and 2013.
The fact that FGM is happening in London is an open secret and we are not doing enough to fight the issue.
Those committed to harming girls are becoming more and more confident. Thankfully, the three-year-old at the heart of the current case is alive but I fear that soon we will be dealing with dead children as a result of FGM. This is why I am calling for all girls born to women who have undergone FGM to be put on a protection register.
