Body modification artist found guilty of mutilating woman’s genitalia, causing grievous bodily harm

A body modification artist is facing jail time after being found guilty of disfiguring two women – but will have to wait for a verdict on a charge of manslaughter.

A body modification artist, who allegedly boasted he was better than a doctor, has been led from a NSW court in cuffs and faces serious jail time for mutilating one woman and seriously wounding another.

Brendan Leigh Russell was on Monday found guilty of female genital mutilation and causing grievous bodily harm with intent relating to separate procedures on two different women in 2015 and 2016.

Russell was accused of removing part of a woman’s labia with a branding iron and scalpel and performing a botched tummy tuck surgery on another which left her with a gaping, infected hole in her stomach.

The 40-year-old, known as BSlice in the body modification industry, will have to wait overnight for a verdict on a third charge of manslaughter over the death of a woman in whose hand he implanted a silicone snowflake in 2017.

Brendan Russell was a renowned body modification artist with a large social media following. Picture: Facebook/Instagram

Russell pleaded not guilty to all charges and his lawyer argued at trial he was not responsible for the women’s ghastly alleged side effects.

Judge Helen Syme, however, found an argument that Russell could not be criminally liable for performing consensual labiaplasty at a Newcastle tattoo shop “completely unsustainable”.

The court heard the labiaplasty, which is legal for medical purposes, left the woman in pain for 12 months and Russell was not an authorised medical practitioner.

Judge Syme also ruled Russell performed the tummy tuck on another woman in an unhygienic setting at his Erina parlour with “little or no regard for any proper informed consent” and put her “at the risk of infection, bungled or poor surgery”.

Brendan Leigh Russell pleaded not guilty to all charges. Picture: AAP Image/Peter Rae

She found that during the November 2016 tummy tuck, Russell pierced through a woman’s fascia when he embedded a scalpel into her open wound, as described in evidence by the victim’s husband.

That resulted in an exposed muscle, significant external and internal bleeding and infection which eventually required emergency surgery, the court heard.

Judge Syme said Russell performed a procedure that was “clearly dangerous” and despite the woman’s consent he had convinced her it was safe.

“I therefore find the accused guilty of the charge,” she said.

The charges he has been found guilty of carry maximum jail terms of 21 and 25 years respectively.

Russell’s lawyer Michal Mantaj argued against a Crown detention application, which followed the two guilty verdicts, saying there was no risk of him failing to appear before the court again.

Mr Mantaj also said Russell’s wife, who he married this year, was pregnant and imminently due to give birth.

Brendan Russell operated out of a Central Coast parlour. Picture: NCA NewsWire/James Gourley

He raised the possibility that any sentence would not require full-time custody, but Judge Syme said prison was “almost inevitable”.

“The prospect of imprisonment is very high,” she said.

“So high as to be just about unavoidable at this stage.”

When he was being handcuffed by corrective officers, Russell’s heavily pregnant wife could be heard to ask “I can’t even say goodbye?” before storming out of the court.

During a judge-alone trial, the court heard Russell proposed to remove skin from a woman’s abdomen after overhearing her speaking with a staff member at his store Transition about loose skin after childbirth.

The court heard Russell allegedly joked he would be able to make her look like Elle Macpherson and did not disclose the potential risks of the procedure.

Following the procedure, the woman returned home before waking in “extreme pain” and covered in blood, she told the court.

Brendan Russell was taken away by corrective staff on Monday. Picture: AAP Image/Peter Rae

The court heard she returned days later to Transition to have some stitches removed and Russell told her the bleeding was part of the healing process.

She claimed Russell encouraged her not to go to hospital and when she finally did days later she refused to give his name to mortified staff out of loyalty.

It was alleged at trial the woman’s wound became infected due to Russell’s unsafe hygiene practices, as attested to by a number of witnesses who had watched him on the job.

One witness told the court there was no consent form for clients to sign before undergoing body modification procedures at Transition because Russell “knew it was a grey area and he said ‘you don’t want to trace that’.”

One woman died after Brendan Russell put a snowflake into her hand.

The woman would later undergo corrective surgery on her stomach scar which stretched from hip to hip.

Judge Syme is yet to deliver a verdict on the remaining charge of manslaughter, which is related to the death of a third woman found dead inside her Central Coast home in April 2017.

She had undergone the snowflake implant procedure at Transition where she was a regular customer, the court was told.

Mr Russell denied his work caused an infection and the court has heard he told friends the woman, who can’t be named, died from a drug overdose.

Medical experts have told the court that in their opinion she died from septicaemia.

Judge Syme will deliver her verdict on the manslaughter charge on Tuesday.