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.
READ: First Conviction: A family torn apart, a system on trial
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.
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EU Directive
Directive 2010/64/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of Europe allows for the right to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings and it came into effect in Ireland in December 2013.
Ireland is good at providing interpreters, Dr Phelan said, but she believes there is insufficient recognition that they must be trained to meet the standards needed in garda stations and courtrooms.
The European directive includes measures that Member States shall take concrete measures to ensure that the interpretation and translation provided meets the necessary quality standards, and must endeavour to establish registers of interpreters/translators.
Where they exist, Member States should facilitate access to national databases of legal interpreters and translators.
The directive was transposed into Irish law in the form of two statutory instruments in 2013. However, 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.
The Association of Translation and Interpreting Associations (ATII) has been sounding the alarm around inadequate court interpreting for almost a quarter of a century, so the outcome of the appeal was hugely significant, according to Dr Phelan.
"This result, this verdict, the Court of Appeal judgement shows that we're right. There is a huge issue around interpreting, and it's really not good enough, and something needs to be done," Dr Phelan said.
The ATII has sent submissions to the Courts Service about the quality and lack of training around interpreting in 2002, 2008, 2011, and in 2020 a submission was made to Criminal Justice Strategic Committee which includes the Courts Service.
It asked for training for court interpreters, as well as a register of qualified court interpreters, and "and raised concerns about the low rates of pay for court interpreters".
But in over two decades, little has changed since the first submission was made and, as it stands, Dr Phelan, says there are no standards or State training for interpreters in Ireland.
International standards
Associate Professor at the UCD Sutherland School of Law Niamh Howlin, explained 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," Prof Howlin said.
"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 added.
In a statement to RTÉ, the Council of the Bar of Ireland said it has not received formal complaints from members in relation to the quality of interpretation or translation services provided in the courts or in garda stations.
It added however that: "The Bar would support the development of a formal system of training, certification, and registration for interpreters and translators working in legal settings, to ensure consistency and high professional standards across the system."
Counting the cost
In order for an accused person to receive an interpreter, the court must first certify that interpretation is required. Once the judge grants certification, the Courts Service arranges and books the interpreter.
In criminal trials, the costs associated with a translator are borne by the Courts Service in every situation.
The information provided to RTÉ for this investigation was obtained by the Courts Service from one of its translation suppliers, Interpreting Services Ireland (ISI), a consortium that includes translation.ie the company used in the FGM case.
According to the Courts Services they "do not maintain a database of individual interpreters used in cases," so information about interpreters comes directly from the translation companies.
The Courts Service added that the interpreter at the centre of this case could have been used by other suppliers at some point.
"ISI/Translation.ie have been the largest suppliers of interpreters for some time so are likely to have been his main employer from a Courts Service prospective, but we cannot rule out the possibility of [the interpreter] having been engaged by another supplier."
The company that provided interpreters for this trial, Translation.ie told RTÉ that the interpreters it provided were experienced, met their competency requirements and had received specific training for attendance at court proceedings.
Translation.ie still has a contract to supply interpreters to the Courts service. Since 2020 the company has made profits of over €15 million according to accounts filed with the Companies Registration Office (CRO).
Second trial
After the couple were released from prison in November 2021, there was a second trial in 2023, but the jury's decision was inconclusive.
In 2024, the Director for Public Prosecutions (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.
The cost of providing translation services has more than doubled between 2020, the year the couple was sentenced and 2024, when the DPP entered a nolle prosequi.
According to FOI figures obtained from the Courts Service in 2020 the cost was €1,198,823.90, in 2021, the cost was €1,573,439.37, in 2022 €1,957,393.06, in 2023 €1,931,191.10 and finally by the end of September 2024, the cost stood at €2,528,498.27.
As the Irish population continues to expand and diversify, more people will require the assistance of interpreters.
Dr Phelan said it is not sufficient for one body to try and solve this problem; instead, a whole of government approach is required.
She said 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."
Additional reporting Anna Joyce
RTÉ Investigates: First Conviction is broadcast tonight, 12 November at 9:35 on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. Documentary produced/directed by Philip Gallagher.
