RTÉ Investigates reveals Court Interpreter in overturned FGM case worked on over 240 other Irish court cases

– Parents jailed for over two years after bringing their daughter to hospital for a crime that never happened 

– 40 cases involving same interpreter across 19 locations nationwide were held after the successful appeal judgments

– Cost of providing translation services doubles between 2020-2024

Tonight, a major RTÉ investigation into the conviction and imprisonment of a couple for a crime that leading medical experts now say didn’t happen, reveals the ongoing and far-reaching consequences for the Irish system that jailed them.  

Wednesday night’s RTÉ Investigates: First Conviction, reveals a court interpreter – who worked on a landmark 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 young daughter. News of their conviction made headlines everywhere. 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. 

The appeal was brought on two grounds – medical evidence and interpretation – but the Court of Appeal found the interpretation issues alone were serious enough to cause the convictions to be 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. 

RTÉ is further aware that at least 40 of these cases were held across 19 locations nationwide, after the appeal court judgment. 

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 narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Ruth Negga, now available on all streaming services, and a television documentary which airs tonight on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player at 9.35pm. 

The series tells the story of how in 2016 a couple are accused of injuring their daughter and put on trial, the first of its kind, for a crime they maintain never even happened. They’re found guilty and jailed. Over the next couple of years, there are many court hearings, a second, inconclusive trial, and all the while this couple continue to say they never injured their child. The Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP) eventually abandoned the case. Now, facing the power of the State, the couple continue to fight for justice through the courts. 

The RTÉ team interviewed the couple at the heart of this story for more than a year and spoke with legal teams and experts to understand fully what the family has gone through over nearly 10 years. Crucially, this includes world-renowned medical experts in the area of FGM, who eventually turned the State’s case upside down. 

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. Their children were placed in the care of relatives, with State agencies monitoring them after their parents are imprisoned. When the family reunites, the young children don’t recognise their mother and father. 

After the couple were released from prison in November 2021, there was a second trial in 2023, but the jury’s decision was inconclusive. At the same time, new medical evidence emerges to support the couple’s story and the medical expert for the prosecution becomes unavailable. In 2024, the DPP entered a nolle prosequi in respect of all charges, meaning that the State was no longer proceeding with the prosecution, but the couple had not been acquitted. The couple’s legal teams subsequently applied to the Court of Appeal on 14 January 2025 for a certificate of miscarriage of justice. This application will now be heard on the 22 and 23 of January 2026. 

Dr Mary Phelan of DCU, and Chair of the Association of Translators and Interpreters Ireland, 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 and compiled a 150- page report for his appeal. 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’s report found that almost all of Sayeed’s evidence was affected by interpretation issues: “Nobody really knows what happened. The defendant can’t give his side of the story properly or in a way that everybody 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. 

The European Parliament and the Council of Europe allow for the right to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings. This came into effect in Ireland in December 2013. 

Dr Phelan said she believes there is insufficient recognition that interpreters must be trained to meet the standards needed in garda stations and courtrooms. There is no court examination for interpreters to test their language competency. Under the Irish Constitution, everyone has the right to a fair trial, and the European Convention on Human Rights also provides for the free assistance of an interpreter in criminal proceedings. 

Associate Professor at the UCD Sutherland School of Law Niamh Howlin, explained to RTÉ that, in other countries, to be a legal interpreter, you must go through state accredited training.: “You take rigorous exams and you will be registered and generally certified as having a very high proficiency in the two languages.”  

“In this country, we don’t have those safeguards. There’s no state training, there’s no state certification, and there’s no central register of who is qualified to be a legal interpreter. So there really is no way to ensure that high quality legal interpretation is being given,” she said. 

In criminal trials, the costs associated with a translator are borne by the Courts Service, which is funded by the State. 

The cost of providing translation services has more than doubled between the year the couple was sentenced and 2024, when the DPP entered a nolle prosequi. 

According to FOI figures obtained from the Courts Service, the cost of translation services in 2020 was €1.2m, in 2021 €1.5m, in 2022 €1.9m, in 2023 €1.9m and in 2024 (up to end of September) the cost stood at €2.5m. 

Dr Phelan said that, to date, nothing appears to have changed since the appeal in the FGM case: “It seems to be everything is just continuing as before that judgement. So, I find that quite extraordinary that nobody’s sitting up and saying, Oh, it’s time to do something about this. It’s time to bring in some standards.”

Watch RTÉ Investigates: First Conviction, tonight, Wednesday 12 November at 9:35pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. 

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