Trial for body modifier Brendan Leigh Russell told alleged victim’s stomach was ‘weeping blood’

A man whose wife received a ‘botched’ tummy tuck has described the gruesome aftermath in court. WARNING: Graphic

A man has described in court how his wife’s stomach was “constantly weeping blood” after an allegedly botched tummy tuck carried out by a NSW body modification artist.

Brendan Leigh Russell is on trial in the District Court for allegedly causing grievous bodily harm to the woman during the November 2016 procedure at a Central Coast tattoo parlour.

Mr Russell, 40, has also pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter and female genital mutilation, which are related to two surgeries he conducted on separate women in 2017 and 2015 respectively.

Body modification artist Brendan Russell is charged with offences including manslaughter.

On Wednesday, the husband of a woman whose stomach became infected after receiving a tummy tuck told the Downing Centre District Court he became increasingly worried at how the wound was healing.

“The wound itself was constantly weeping blood,” he said.

Mr Russell, who has no formal medical training and is known on social media as BSlice DotCom, refutes allegations his work caused the woman’s complications.

He denies claims made by the woman and her husband in court that he failed to disclose any risks of the procedure or flag warning signs of infection to watch for afterwards.

Brendan Leigh Russell is on trial at Sydney’s District Court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / James Gourley

Under cross examination from Mr Russell’s lawyer, Michal Mantaj, the woman’s husband said all they were told was for the woman to rest, avoid work and wear a compression bandage.

“It was just more about changing the dressings … within 48 hours,” he said. “And obviously if it’s bleeding, to change the gauze.”

The man said he was confused why, at one point during the procedure, Mr Russell allegedly embedded a scalpel in the woman’s fatty tissue and “took his hand away”.

Mr Russell denies this happened.

The man told the court that on advice from Mr Russell, his wife went to a medical centre weeks later to have stitches removed.

But doctors were unable to because there was so much dried blood on her wound.

Staff advised her to take a salt bath to clean the area before returning for a second attempt.

In the end, doctors recommended she go to hospital as her wound reopened, the court heard.

“They put a (cotton bud) inside the wound to see how deep it was and it was a good centimetre-and-a-half down,” the man said.

The three procedures being investigated at trial took place between January 2015 and April 2017. Picture: AAP Image/Peter Rae

Medical surgeon Frederick Clarke told the court he performed a corrective abdominoplasty – or tummy tuck – on the woman in 2020 to minimise her prominent belly scar.

Mr Mantaj asked him whether getting the wound wet, such as by sitting in a bath, could have caused it to reopen.

Dr Clarke agreed and said he would not recommend a patient be submerged in a body of water for weeks after such a surgery.

He said a wound could fill with water, which could delay healing.

Crown prosecutor Christopher Taylor asked Dr Clarke if other factors could cause a wound to reopen.

The surgeon said infection was a common cause of a wound breaking down, and added that surgical technique was “certainly very important to an adequate wound closure”.

The trial continues.