Queensland mother sent her two daughters to Africa to undergo circumcision and was sentenced to eight months in prison (Messenger Post Photo)
A terminally ill mother in Queensland was jailed for taking her two daughters to Somalia to undergo painful circumcision. The judge hoped this would serve as a deterrent.
In April 2015, a Queensland woman returned to Somalia, where she was born, with her then-10-and 13-year-old daughters and arranged for two children to undergo circumcision, the Messenger Post reported.
Brisbane District Court Judge Claire (Leanne Clare) said the circumcision was a child abuse involving a 45-year-old mother who took her child to Africa for that purpose. The mother became the first person in Queensland to be sentenced to female circumcision with her children in other parts of the country.
The two girls returned to Brisbane after months of circumcision and their stepsisters reported to child security.
As early as 2008, child security officials had told the mother that female circumcision was illegal in Australia and that it was also illegal to send the child overseas for circumcision, prosecutors said.
Lawyer Wilson (Patrick Wilson) defended the children`s support for their mother. The mother, with breast cancer, has spread to the spine and is receiving chemotherapy.
The mother concerned must serve an eight-month sentence and then be reprimanded.
