https://www.rte.ie/news/investigations-unit/2025/1112/1543350-interpreter-in-overturned-fgm-conviction/
12
Nov 2025
Interpreter
in overturned FGM conviction worked on over 240 cases
A
court interpreter who worked on Ireland's first and only female
genital mutilation (FGM) case that was overturned on appeal over
translation errors assisted in more than 240 other cases for the
Irish Court Services.
The
interpreter was involved in the 2019 trial of a couple, originally
from French-speaking regions of Africa, convicted of and imprisoned
for the FGM of their 21-month-old daughter. The defence argued
throughout the trial that the child’s injury was accidental, caused
by falling on a toy in the home.
The
Court of Appeal later found "serious, and potentially
far-reaching, inaccuracies" in the interpretation at that
criminal trial, and set the convictions aside in 2021.
Despite
this ruling, RTÉ is aware the interpreter continued to assist in
criminal proceedings until December 2023.
While
the appeal was brought on two grounds – medical evidence and
interpretation – the Court of Appeal found the interpretation
issues alone were serious enough to render the convictions unsafe.
This
decision to set aside the conviction was the first time in Irish
legal history that translation issues were grounds for a successful
Circuit Court appeal.
The
Courts Service confirmed to RTÉ that the interpreter had assisted in
at least 246 court cases across the country between December 2016 and
late December 2023.
Of
these cases, 146 were for the District Court, 62 for the Circuit
Court, 26 for the High Court, predominantly in the Central Criminal
Court, and 12 cases were unattributable as the Court Services could
not "identify a relevant jurisdiction from the information
available".
RTÉ
is further aware at least 40 of these cases were held after the
successful appeal judgment across 19 locations nationwide.
However,
according to the Courts Service, they are not aware of further
appeals made as a result of interpretation by this individual.
These
revelations, among others, came to light in a new joint investigation
from RTÉ Documentary on One and RTÉ Investigates titled First
Conviction, a six-part podcast series now available on all streaming
services, and a television documentary, which airs tonight on RTÉ
One at 9.35pm.
First
Conviction marks the first time Sayeed and his wife Halawa, whose
names have been changed to protect the anonymity of their children,
have spoken publicly about what happened to their family.
For
the purposes of both the podcast and the television documentary,
their injured daughter is referred to as Ayeesha.
Lost
in translation
Solicitor
James MacGuill represented Sayeed in the appeal, while Halawa was
represented by Hanahoe Solicitors.
In
the courtroom, Sayeed, who was using French and Halawa, her native
language, each had an interpreter to translate everything that was
being said in English.
To
identify the interpretation errors in the appeal, Mr MacGuill
obtained a recording of Sayeed’s original testimony in French and
sought the assistance of Dr Mary Phelan, Chair of the Association of
Translators and Interpreters Ireland.
Dr
Phelan, who also works at Dublin City University, is one of the
preeminent experts in the country on translation, particularly in
legal settings like courtrooms and garda stations.
Dr
Phelan and her colleagues analysed 100 minutes of the interpreted
testimony from Sayeed.
She
compiled a report with the help of the founder of the European Legal
Interpreters and Translators Association, Liese Katschinka, and Dr
Christiane Driesen, who is a native French speaker and a legal
interpreter.
The
recordings were transcribed and set out side-by-side in a table to
show where the interpretation diverged from the original testimony.
The
report came to almost 150 pages long.
Dr
Phelan said the interpreter made numerous basic errors during the
trial.
"There
were so many opportunities lost where the defendant could have had an
opportunity to tell his side of the story, and he wasn't able to do
that. The family was totally failed, really, by the poor interpreting
in this trial," Dr Phelan said.
Dr
Phelan’s report found that almost all of Sayeed’s evidence was
affected by interpretation issues. She said they encountered a lot of
problems with medical and legal language.
The
interpreter, she added, did not do the basic homework throughout the
trial to find out things like how to say FGM in French.
"I
think a lot of interpreters, I would hope, that they would sit down
and check things out at the end of day one or during a lunch break
and make sure that they have the terms correct. But that didn't
happen in this case, and I do find that very worrying," Dr
Phelan said.
She
said the interpreter also appeared to confuse basic terms, including
words for body parts such as feet and legs.
One
example concerned a toy the couple said their daughter may have
fallen on, which resembles a small car dashboard. During the original
trial, the defence argued that the child’s injury may have been
caused by falling onto a toy in the home, rather than by an act of
FGM.
"You
can't get more basic than that. There's a lot of confusion about the
toy, the activity centre that caused the injury, where there's
confusion about what exactly the setup was, how did it happen."
This
caused confusion within the courtroom, she explained.
"Nobody
really knows what happened. The defendant can't give his side of the
story properly or in a way that everybody in the court in the
courtroom, including the jury, can actually understand."
The
report compiled by Dr Phelan following her analysis led to the Court
of Appeal deciding the conviction was unsafe in 2021.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/interpreter-was-used-in-40-more-cases-after-couples-convictions-were-set-aside/a898010193.html
https://www.ireland-live.ie/news/arts---entertainment/1941426/rte-probe-finds-interpreter-in-overturned-fgm-case-worked-on-hundreds-of-other-court-cases.html
