Judge and parents call for boys to be protected from circumcision

A judge, parents and police have called for boys to be protected from the harms of ritual circumcision.

The calls came on Wednesday during the sentencing of Mohammad Siddiqui, an ex-doctor who was given a five-year custodial sentence for child cruelty and actual bodily harm related to ritual circumcisions of boys.

Siddiqui also pled guilty to administering prescription only medications in some of the circumcisions.

In his sentencing remarks at London Inner Crown Court, judge Noel Lucas KC said the case has shown that "safeguards and protections must now be put in place and put in place as a matter of urgency, to ensure that babies and young children are protected."

Lucas also noted the calls of parents of Siddiqui's victims for boys to be protected: "[one boy's] mother describes the unregulated nature of non-therapeutic circumcisions as being absurd and endangering the health of children."

"The fact Siddiqui could carry on with such impunity and affect so many innocent lives is surely all the evidence that is needed to ensure this gap in legislation is addressed", the mother added.

Lucas said another boy's father is "concerned that male-circumcision remains unregulated and he hopes this case will encourage debate regarding the introduction of regulations."

As an unregulated practice, non-therapeutic circumcision can be carried out by anyone; there is no requirement for circumcisers to have any medical training.

Detective Chief Superintendent Fiona Bitters of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said the case "raised a number of concerns about non-therapeutic male circumcision, which will need to be addressed as part of the ongoing need to safeguard children."

In recent months, the National Secular Society has called on the Children's Minister, the Children's Commissioner for England, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Children's Health, and the General Medical Council to protect boys from ritual circumcision.

Parents traumatised and boys' penises left "black" and "necrotic"

Lucas remarked one mother has been left "traumatized [sic] with the thought" that letting Siddiqui operate on her son may have caused lifelong damage to his penis. The boy is due to be seen by a paediatric specialist next month.

Siddiqui's circumcisions variously left boys' penises as "black", "necrotic", 'smelling foul' and "inverted and not normal".

One boy was so badly injured he was hospitalised for two weeks and had to undergo a lumbar puncture, also known as a spinal tap.

The judged noted a patient complaint brought to the attention of the General Medical Council in which an anaesthetic administered by Siddiqui during a circumcision "caused a severe adverse reaction such that the child nearly died."

'Gratuitous infliction of pain': Unanaesthetised circumcision was child cruelty

Describing a count of child cruelty, Lucas said Siddiqui "failed to use any form of anesthetic [sic] on the child prior to the procedure".

In court on Tuesday, prosecutor Ben Douglas-Jones KC described this as a 'gratuitous infliction of pain' and a 'deliberate disregard for the welfare of the child'.

Many ritual circumcisions are performed with no anaesthesia. When asked by the NSS what the implications of Siddiqui's conviction were for these other unanaesthetised circumcisions, Douglas-Jones 'would not be drawn'.

Police criticised for failure to act

Lucas also questioned why authorities had not intervened sooner. He said the police "should have intervened far sooner than they did".

He added: "I don't know why you were not charged at an earlier stage and I don't know why earlier investigations did not proceed".

Siddiqui was twice arrested and released without charge before finally being prosecuted.

The case raises parallels with Dr Balvinder Mehat, a GP in Nottingham who has twice circumcised boys without adequate parental consent.

Mehat was once arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm but never prosecuted. A prominent human rights lawyer, Saimo Chahal KC (Hon), described that decision as "flawed and irrational".

The father of one of the boys described the lack of adequate anaesthesia used by Mehat: "When he [his son] talked to me about it, he told me he felt everything, and the lidocaine injection didn't actually work. He felt like he was getting electrocuted all over his body."

Days later, the boy "woke up screaming in agony" complaining of "acute penile pain" and had to be admitted for emergency urological surgery to address complications from the circumcision. A nurse told the father the boy was at risk of losing his penis if the surgery had been delayed any longer.

Similarly, one of Siddiqui's victims had to be admitted to hospital via ambulance for emergency surgery after his parents described his penis as 'exploding' with blood. The pain was so severe the child required morphine. Had surgeons not intervened the boy could have lost the head of his penis due to necrosis.

NSS: 'Boys must be protected from ritual circumcision'

National Secular Society human rights lead Dr Alejandro Sanchez said: "The appalling crimes of Mohammad Siddiqui underscore the fact that ritual circumcision is painful, dangerous, medically unnecessary and irreversible.

"The judge and parents of Siddiqui's victims are absolutely right that boys need to be protected from circumcision.

"Circumcision is a surgery: surgeries are inherently dangerous and should only be performed on children when there is medical necessity. They should only be performed by medical professionals.

"Boys must be protected from ritual circumcision until they are old enough to decide for themselves whether they wish to undergo the procedure."