Hospital reveals 1,500 new cases of ‘cutting’, including UK-born victims

More than 1,500 new cases of female genital mutilation have been revealed by a single London maternity unit in an indication of the scale of the suffering inflicted on women in the capital.

St George’s hospital in Tooting has treated as many as 200 women a year since it began compiling statistics on the barbaric practice.

Many of the 1,546 victims seen at the hospital were born in Somalia and substantial numbers were from Nigeria and Eritrea.

But at least 11 of the women were born in Britain, where genital mutilation has been illegal since 1985.

The statistics were provided to the Evening Standard following our report this month on figures showing that more than 2,000 victims have been treated at seven other NHS trusts with specialist services for women with FGM.

Campaigners described those statistics as “horrifying” and MPs today added their voices to calls for intensified action across government to address the problem.

Karen Lewis, a midwife at St George’s who specialises in helping FGM victims, said the figures highlighted the prevalence of the practice, but warned that other victims were “slipping through the net” because of a lack of knowledge among some medical staff.

She said some staff regarded mutilation as a “cultural issue” rather than abuse, and that although efforts to address this were under way, a more concerted campaign was needed.

“The women we see have often faced years of pain and suffer flashbacks and other psychological problems. Some of them are also terrified of childbirth because of what’s happened to them in the past,” she said.

“Some of them also don’t realise that FGM is wrong and are quite horrified when we tell them. So we need to do much more to raise awareness and have a big educational campaign to stop it happening to more girls in the future.”

Battersea MP Jane Ellison, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on female genital mutilation, said: “With these figures we are finally beginning to see the scale of FGM in London.

“Many of these women are suffering the chronic health problems associated with FGM. Yet again we are shown that there is a big problem to which our health and other public services must respond.”

Today’s figures show that the highest number of FGM victims attending St George’s maternity unit was in 2010, when 200 cases were recorded. Another 163 mutilated women gave birth in 2011 with a further 161 cases last year. A total of 80 victims have been registered so far this year.

A breakdown of the figures for 2007 to 2012 by country of birth shows that 681 victims came from Somalia and that 74 were born in Nigeria. Eritrea, with 40 cases, and Ethiopia, which had 23, were next, followed by Sudan with 14. British-born women accounted for 11 cases, including one last year.

No prosecutions for female genital mutilation have been brought so far, although the Crown Prosecution Service is studying files on five cases submitted to it by the Met.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, said recently that it was only a “matter of time” before charges were brought for the first time because of improvements in the way that cases were being investigated. However, he warned that it would probably have to be a “victimless” trial because of the reluctance of women to testify in court.

FGM victims attending St George’s NHS Trust maternity unit

2002 - 78

2003 - 77

2004 - 90

2005 - 28

2006 - 156

2007 - 130

2008 - 134

2009 - 149

2010 - 200

2011 - 163

2012 - 161

2013 - 80*

Total - 1,546

*so far this year

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