Body modifier warned to delete posts, lie low during healthcare watchdog investigation: court

A body modifier charged with mutilating women was told to ‘go missing’ as the healthcare watchdog circled, a court has heard.

A body modifier accused of killing a woman with a botched snowflake implant and mutilating two other clients was warned to “get rid of everything” mentioning anaesthetic from his Instagram and Facebook pages, a court has heard.

In an April 2018 phone call, Brendan Leigh Russell’s then-girlfriend warned him to delete such content from his social media pages and “just sort of go missing for a little bit” while the healthcare watchdog investigated.

In the call played to court on Monday, Maria Russell, who married Mr Russell in April this year, relayed legal advice to him from her cousin, who she said had studied law.

“She said, if you’ve got anything on your Instagram or Facebook about anaesthetic or any of your clients or anything, get rid of everything,” Ms Russell could be heard saying.

Mr Russell, 40, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter, female genital mutilation and grievous bodily harm in relation to three different women who underwent body modification procedures between January 2015 and April 2017.

The Central Coast man, who worked under the moniker BSlice DotCom, agrees he performed the procedures, but denies causing medical complications.

Brendan Russell has pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter, female genital mutilation and grievous bodily harm. (AAP Image/Peter Rae)

Ms Russell told the the NSW District Court on Monday morning she was aware of her husband’s body modification work and knew he used anaesthetic at times.

Ms Russell said she had spoken to her cousin, who was not a criminal lawyer but had studied law, after Mr Russell received a letter from the Health Care Complaints Commission telling him he had to stop working while an investigation took place.

In the April 2018 phone call, she told Mr Russell her cousin had advised the letter was “nothing to do with anaesthetic or anything like that”.

“I said, you don’t use anaesthetic so it doesn’t matter,” she could be heard saying.

Giving evidence, Ms Russell agreed she had lied to her cousin about whether Mr Russell used anaesthetic in his procedures.

She also said she had advised Mr Russell to remove any mention of anaesthetics from his website to avoid detection by the authorities.

The court has previously heard he performed a tummy tuck on a woman using local anaesthetic.

Ms Russell said in the call when she referred to “the girl”, she was talking about the woman who died after Mr Russell inserted a snowflake implant under the skin in her hand.

She can be heard saying several times in the audio Mr Russell should “try not to stress” as the investigation had not yet gone to the police.

“What happens if they look at it but? They’re trying to,” Mr Russell said at one point.

“Well if they’re trying to charge you for something you have to get a criminal lawyer ... They can charge you for something to do with her,” Ms Russell replied.

A short time later she added “Hopefully this is just about you and not about that chick. And maybe that girl’s just sort of rung a few little alarm bells and that’s what they’re trying to do, and they’ve just had to implement it because of her parents.”

“Cos they’ve pushed for something, you know what I mean?”

Mr Russell replied: “I guarantee you. I guarantee there’ll be a case on this. And it’ll go out and be exposed...”

“I don’t think so,” Ms Russell said. “I don’t think their case is going to stand up in court because they need a lot of f..king evidence ... it’s a massive accusation.”

She suggested to Mr Russell he “just sort of go missing for a little bit and then in eight weeks we’ll know”.

Brendan Russell’s wife Maria gave evidence at his trial on Monday: NCA NewsWire / James Gourley

Ms Russell said when she told Mr Russell to “be really careful” about what he was putting “through the shop” she was referring to body modification procedures and cash being recorded on the books.

She agreed it was to enable Mr Russell to keep doing body modification work but avoid recording the procedures.

She also agreed she told him to just do his modification work on “holidays”, clarifying she meant interstate trips where she had hoped his work would go unnoticed by the NSW authorities.

“Your design at this stage was to help Brendan not come to the attention of the authorities?” asked prosecutor Chris Taylor.

“Yes,” Ms Russell answered.

Last week, Mr Russell’s trial was hidden from public view for two days as Judge Helen Syme barred media from the virtual court, citing sound difficulties on the audiovisual link.

The trial will continue on Thursday.