A 55-year-old Nigerian man, father-of-six Philip Ogbewe has been jailed by Longford Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, for three years for carrying out a “barbaric” circumcision without anaesthetic on a ten-month-old boy.
According to a publication by IrishTimes, the baby needed emergency urgent medical attention and was hospitalised for two weeks in December 2015.
It was included in the reports that Philip Ogbewe, of Green Lanes, Drogheda, Co Louth, Ireland, has no medical qualifications but continued to carry out circumcisions even while out on bail.
He called himself Doctor Philip. He has been carrying out circumcisions since he was in his mid-teens in a tradition that went back to the time of his great-grandfather – but he has no medical qualifications and in his 20 years in Ireland worked as a grocer and fridge technician
The investigation into Ogbowe’s activities began after a baby boy was brought into Mullingar hospital bleeding heavily after a crude circumcision
The child’s mother had sought the traditional ritual and thought Ogbowe was a doctor after he arrived at her home wearing a stethoscope.
She paid him €200 but when she rang him later about the baby haemorrhaging he told her this was to be expected and to give him Calpol or Neurofen (pain relief syrup for children).
Garda Sgt Carney interviewed him and he claimed the woman had pressured him into the performing the circumcision.
When gardaí (police) searched his car they found his medical kit a canvas bag with a surgical blade, a razor blade, thread, cotton wool, Vaseline, a disinfectant liquid and condoms.
Judge Keenan Johnson described this as “a barbaric act of cruelty on a ten-month-old and even allowing for cultural norms, reckless in the extreme”.
He said Ogbowe had masqueraded as “a quack doctor”, he knew it was illegal to practice that in Ireland but had continued to carry out circumcisions even while on bail.
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