A self-styled doctor, who was on bail for a botched procedure on a child when he circumcised seven boys, has appealed against his jail sentence.
Philip Ogbewe has argued he was not given sufficient credit for “seeing the light” and recognising the wrongfulness of his actions.
He referred to himself as ‘Dr Philip’ when he performed circumcisions on six infants and a five-year-old boy at locations in Dublin, Kildare and Wexford in 2018 and 2019.
Ogbewe (61), of Greenlanes, Drogheda, Co Louth, admitted seven counts of endangerment and seven of assault causing harm in relation to each child on whom he performed the procedure between January 1st, 2018, and October 23rd, 2019.
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He had previously been arrested in November 2018 in relation to a 2015 circumcision of another child, who ended up being hospitalised with complications from the procedure. He was on bail for this offence when he carried out these crimes.
Ogbewe was jailed in May 2020 for three years for the endangerment of this child, which was backdated to November 2019 when he was taken into custody.
His sentencing hearing last year was told he was contacted by parents who wanted their sons circumcised and who had heard of him through friends.
Some of these parents had tried to get their child circumcised in hospital, but could either not access the procedure or had been quoted around €1,500 for the surgery.
Ogbewe charged the parents between €300 and €350 in most cases to carry out the procedure in their own homes, usually while the child was on their parent’s lap or – in one case – on a kitchen table. He used an anaesthetic spray in some cases but not all, the court heard.
Imposing sentence in July last year, Judge Elma Sheahan said the court was struck by the “absence of anaesthesia” in some of the cases, “with small babies held in their parents’ arms”. She said it was “owing to luck” that the children did not suffer more.
The judge imposed a four-and-a-half-year sentence on each of the seven counts of endangerment and said it was necessary that one of these sentences would run consecutively, with the remainder to run concurrently.
The judge said this gave a total sentence of nine years, which she reduced by 18 months to reflect the principles of totality and proportionality, giving an effective total sentence of seven-and-a-half years, with the final 12 months suspended.
At the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC, for Ogbewe, argued the headline sentence of six years set by the judge on each count was too high.
He acknowledged his client’s behaviour had been “arrogant” and “ignorant”, but said it was based on years of experience performing these activities to what Ogbewe believed was a high standard.
“This is a man who was behaving abominably, but who was functioning effectively as a cheap service,” Mr Ó Lideadha said.
He said the fact his client had “learned his lesson” before the sentence in Mullingar was imposed but after he was arrested for these offences was relevant to his overall remorse and rehabilitation.
Mr Ó Lideadha also contended that if the prosecution had acted swiftly and brought these charges to court before his 2020 sentence had expired then these matters could have been dealt with while that sentence was “still live”.
He said if that was the case then the totality principle would have to apply.
Mr Ó Lideadha said it was important to distinguish between intentional and reckless endangerment, saying Ogbewe did not carry out the acts for the purpose of endangering of the children involved.
He said the seven cases demonstrated “a level of competence” that prevented those involved from being exposed to serious injury or death.
“He [Ogbewe] says he’s being doing it for decades,” Mr Ó Lideadha said. “The reality is the risk was actually quite low in this case because of his level of experience.”
Shane Costelloe SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the sentence imposed was sound and the judge had made no error.
“The idea that Mr Ogbewe has a fixed world view and that it is only when he is arrested and prosecuted and the lawyers sit down with him and he sees the error of his way that that could be a mitigating factor I don’t see it,” Mr Costelloe said.
He said there were “grave” aggravating features in this case, including the “multitudes of victims”.
Mr Costelloe said Ogbewe had researched whether he could perform these procedures legally by getting a licence, found he could not and then proceeded to carry them out for more than two decades.
Ogbewe “put himself out there” as a capable professional to perform surgery when “he knows he is neither of those things and he knows what he is doing is illegal”, Mr Costelloe said.
“If that’s not an aggravating factor I don’t know what is.”
Appeal judges reserved their judgment.
