A man who carried out non-therapeutic circumcisions on babies and infants was jailed for nine years at Southwark Crown Court yesterday for crimes including wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Mohammed Alazawi, aged 54 and born in Iraq, was convicted of 40 offences perpetrated between 2016 and 2022 relating to circumcisions he had performed.

They include aggravated bodily harm, administering prescription only anaesthetics, and fraudulently presenting himself as a doctor.

Alazawi performed circumcisions in London and Birmingham, advertising his services in local mosques. The prosecution said most victims were babies and represented ‘the most vulnerable cross-section of society’.

There is no legal requirement in the UK for circumcisers to be medically trained, and circumcisers who are not doctors are entirely unregulated.

This arrangement enabled Alazawi, who has no medical training and had been previously jailed for ‘a violent attack on a lone woman’, to carry out non-therapeutic circumcisions.

The National Secular Society, which campaigns to protect all children from medically unnecessary genital cutting, said the current legal arrangement around non-therapeutic circumcision “is endangering the lives of children”.

“Prolonged and persistent” assault with no anaesthesia

In one case, Alazawi perpetrated a “prolonged and persistent” assault against a four year old by repeatedly trying to force a plastibell circumcision ring around the child’s penis. No anaesthetic was used.

The father said the child was ‘screaming in agony’ and ‘suffered’ for a week after. The judge, HHJ Perrins, said this was a “particularly serious offence” and the child “no doubt felt very scared.”

In another case, a boy’s penis “did not heal properly”. Alazawi’s circumcision either caused the child’s penis to corkscrew (penile torsion) or he improperly circumcised a child with penile torsion. The child subsequently required corrective surgery.

In another, neither of the child’s parents consented to the procedure – only an aunt had.

The prosecution said circumcision, by its very nature, involves the infliction of a ‘permanent, irreversible injury’.

The judge said Alazawi failed to inform parents of the “risks inherent” in the procedure. An expert witness said potential complications included “serious injuries to the penis itself”.

Alazawi ‘did not accept’ he had done anything wrong and ‘did not accept any responsibility’, the judge added.

Risk of ‘serious morbidity and death’

Alazawi administered antibiotics and anaesthetic without asking parents about allergies, the child’s weight, or taking a medical history, thereby increasing the risk of overdose and anaphylaxis.

By his own admission, Alazawi cannot read or write English, which the judge said would limit him to “the most basic aspects of patient care”.

Alazawi’s lack of medical training meant there was an increased chance of him injecting anaesthetic directly into a blood vessel, creating a risk of ‘serious morbidity or death’.

Alazawi’s improper use of anaesthetic was ‘particularly serious’ as there was no resuscitation equipment to hand, and no paediatric nurse with CPR training present.

Instead, he was assisted by ‘wholly unqualified’ teenage boys who had no medical training and, in some cases, whose names he did even not know.

The judge said Alazawi’s associates also performed circumcisions which caused children so much pain they could not attend school ‘for a number of weeks’.

His circumcisions were performed in an unsanitary manner: he often failed to wash his hands, and some circumcisions were even performed on the floor of family homes.

Alazawi gave his victims honey on dummies to ‘soothe’ them, despite the risk of botulism poisoning in children under a year old.

He performed his circumcisions using unapproved medical equipment bought on the Chinese website Alibaba.

Judge: “Clear financial motive’

The judge said Alazawi had a “clear financial motive” in performing his £150 circumcisions.

Over £14,000 in cash was found by police at his home, and it was estimated he had earned over £80,000 in total from his circumcision practice. The prosecution said he ‘chose profit and speed over patient safety’.

Despite his claims of poor health during the trial, Alazawi attempted to abscond to Dublin on a ferry with thousands of pounds in cash.

Second conviction this year

Non-therapeutic circumcision is facing renewed scrutiny in the UK after an ex-doctor was jailed for five years in January for actual bodily harm and child cruelty related to the practice.

The judge, family members and the police all called for boys to be better protected.

Responding to the case, the Government acknowledged the “harm or trauma” caused by unregulated practitioners performing non-therapeutic circumcisions, but failed to commit to introducing safeguards.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request from the NSS to the medical regulator, the General Medical Council (GMC), revealed nine complaints related to circumcision involving eight doctors in 2024.

In one case a doctor “approved and supervised a circumcision where a child almost lost their life”. In another, a doctor carried out a circumcision on a child “which has left patient with a mutilated penis”.

NSS: ‘Appalling harm wrought on children by non-therapeutic circumcision’

National Secular Society human rights lead Dr Alejandro Sanchez said: “This case once again reveals appalling harm wrought on children by non-therapeutic circumcision.

“We recognise the significance of this practice to a number of communities, but we must be clear sighted about what it is: a medically unnecessary, religiously or culturally motivated surgery to remove healthy erogenous tissue from the body of a child.

“The current legal arrangement, which allowed a man with no medical training and a history of violence to carry out invasive paediatric surgery, is endangering the lives of children.

“Surgeries are inherently dangerous. They should only be performed by doctors and, when it comes to children, only with medical necessity.

“It is now time for Government and the medical establishment to act. Boys must be protected from non-therapeutic circumcision until they are old enough to decide for themselves whether they wish to undergo the procedure.”