Woman jailed for flying three-year-old British girl to Kenya for female genital

A woman who flew a three-year-old British girl out to Kenya for female genital mutilation was defended by the victim in court being slapped with a seven-year jail sentence.

Amina Noor, 40, who was born in Somalia but moved to Britain when she was 16, took the three-year-old to a ‘clinic’ while she waited outside as the horrific procedure was carried out.

Medical experts who later examined the child found she had suffered severe mutilation of her genitals, which would have caused significant bleeding and extreme pain. 

Noor, from Harrow, North London, has claimed she was pressured by her own family to allow the barbaric procedure and her mother told her she would be ‘cursed’ if she didn’t let the ritual happen.

However, she was jailed on Friday for seven years in the first conviction of its kind in the UK. 

Now, it has emerged that the victim, who kept the mutilation a secret for 13 years until confiding in her English teacher at the age of 16, appeared at the Old Bailey to plead for Noor not to be jailed.

In the first conviction of its kind, Amina Noor, 40, has been jailed for seven years for assisting in the female genital mutilation on a three-year-old British girl during a trip to Kenya in 2006 

Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy speaks to the media outside the Old Bailey, central London, after Amina Noor, 39, was jailed for seven years

She said Noor is ‘not wicked’ and she understood why the refugee agreed to let the procedure happen.

‘I know if I had been in her position with the failure of education and pressure from people she trusted, I would have done the same,’ the university student said.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a procedure where the female genitals are deliberately cut, injured or changed, but there’s no medical reason for this to be done. 

It’s also known as female circumcision or cutting, and by other terms, such as Sunna, gudniin, halalays, tahur, megrez and khitan, among others.

FGM is usually carried out on young girls between infancy and the age of 15, most commonly before puberty starts. It’s illegal in the UK and classified as child abuse.

An examination by doctors then found the girl’s clitoris was completely removed. 

Noor is the first person to be convicted of taking a child abroad for FGM.

Mr Justice Bryan, jailing Noor, said the case involves a ‘young woman whose life has been irrevocably impacted by your actions’. 

Prosecutor Deanna Heer, KC, earlier told jurors Noor flew the victim to Kenya in 2006.

‘Whilst they were there, she took [the victim] to the house of a Kenyan woman, where she was subjected to female genital mutilation. That involved the complete removal of her clitoris.

‘At the time, she was just three years of age.’ 

Noor was born in Somalia but moved to Mombasa in Kenya when she was eight after the outbreak of civil war in Somalia

The victim later formed a close relationship with her English teacher at school and in November 2018 she told her she was had been subjected to FGM.

‘On 11 January 2019 [the victim] was medically examined by doctors at University College Hospital here in London.

‘It was found that her clitoris had been completely removed.’

When spoken to by investigators, the defendant said she thought the procedure was just an injection and afterwards the girl was ‘happy and able to run around and play’, the court heard.

Noor appeared ‘shocked and upset’ and said that was not what she thought was going to happen.

Giving evidence in her trial, Noor said she was threatened with being ‘cursed’ and ‘disowned’ within her community if she did not take part.

She told jurors the threat gave her ‘pain’, adding: ‘That was a pressure I had no power to do anything about.’