A new documentary shows how Bristol detectives investigating an allegation of female genital mutilation were aware of major flaws in the case months before it collapsed at trial.
Cameras spent two years following Detective Chief Inspector Leanne Pook and her team at Avon and Somerset Police as they looked into an accusation made against a 29-year-old taxi driver who was alleged to have caused or allowed his six-year-old daughter to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM).
The team had hoped their case would result in the first successful prosecution against FGM, which has been illegal in the UK since 1985, but the case dramatically fell apart at trial after a judge deemed photos of the girl’s injuries were so blurry they were ‘of no value clinically or forensically’.