A mother has been jailed for 11 years after becoming the first person in the UK to be found guilty of female genital mutilation, or FGM.
The 37-year-old Ugandan woman was convicted of cutting her three-year-old daughter.
Her partner, a 43-year-old Ghanaian, was cleared of involvement following an Old Bailey trial.
During the hearing, the woman also admitted having indecent pictures of a child, publishing videos of sexual activity with animals and possessing extreme pornographic images, for which she received a further two years.
Mrs Justice Whipple said: “FGM has long been against the law and let’s be clear FGM is a form of child abuse.
“It’s a barbaric practice and a serious crime. It’s an offence which targets women, particularly inflicted when they are young and vulnerable.”
The judge said it was not known why the woman inflicted FGM on her child, contrary to her culture, although witchcraft was a possibility.
On the psychological effect on the victim, she told the defendant: “This is a significant and life long burden for her to carry. You betrayed her trust in you as her protector.”
He former partner, originally from Ghana, pleaded guilty to two charges of possession of indecent images of a child and two charges of possessing extreme images involving bestiality. He was sentenced to 11 months in prison, though he had already served his time on remand.
The court heard it would be up to the Home Office to decide whether to allow him to continue living in Britain.
The couple, from Walthamstow, east London, had been jointly accused of carrying out FGM on their daughter over the 2017 summer bank holiday.
The girl was subjected to “deliberate cutting with a sharp instrument” at her mother’s home, the Old Bailey heard.
Medics raised the alarm after she was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital with severe bleeding.
The defendants told authorities that their daughter had been reaching for a biscuit when she fell and cut herself on the edge of a kitchen cupboard.
But the victim later confided in specially trained officers that she had been cut by a “witch”.
Her older brother told police he saw his sister crying and “blood dripping on the floor”.
While the parents were on bail, police searched the unemployed mother’s home and found evidence of witchcraft.