Nigerian "Wanzam" in London court

Boys 'circumcised at home with WH Smith scissors'
A teacher used a doctorate bestowed on him for his knowledge of rats' brains to deceive mothers into allowing him to circumcise their sons, a court has heard.

Omunnakwe Amechi used business cards, receipts and the title "doctor" given for a chemistry PhD to create a false aura of medical expertise, it was claimed.

As a result parents trustingly handed over ?100 for him to carry out "unsafe and harmful" sitting room surgery, London's Woolwich Crown Court was told.

The procedures, conducted with the help of anaesthetic injections, lengths of white cotton and scissors bought from WHSmith, were "far from the quality" expected.

His alleged victims, aged 14 and 19 months, were not only left bleeding profusely but needed both follow-up transfusions in hospital and corrective surgery, said Mark Wyeth, prosecuting.

"The defendant, by his conduct, induced in the mothers of these children the mistaken belief that he was medically qualified," said the barrister.

"If he hadn't induced that state of belief neither would have consented to their sons being circumcised by this man."

Amechi, 53, of Goldsmith Street, Peckham, south London, denies two counts of unlawful wounding in February and July last year.

He also pleaded not guilty to two allegations of obtaining property by deception - a reference to the fees he charged.