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Body modifier claimed drug overdose killed woman who received snowflake procedure

Heath Parkes-HuptonNCA NewsWire
Not Supplied
Camera IconNot Supplied Credit: Supplied

Former colleagues of a NSW body modifier have told a court he claimed a woman who died after he implanted a plastic snowflake under her skin actually succumbed to a drug overdose.

Brendan Leigh Russell is on trial for the woman’s manslaughter, but denies the allegation his work caused an infection which claimed her life.

On Monday, one of his ex-workmates at Erina tattoo and piercing parlour Transitions told the Downing Centre District Court about coming into the shop the day after the woman died.

A woman died after a fake snowflake was implanted under her skin.
Camera IconA woman died after a fake snowflake was implanted under her skin. Credit: Supplied

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Dave Olteanu said Mr Russell was there discussing the incident with another person and claimed the woman had called him “off her face” the night before.

“Brendan said she’d passed away and that she’d called him the night before saying that she felt ill. That her hand was sore,” Mr Olteanu said.

“And Brendan told me he said she sounded wasted.

“He advised her just to make sure it was clean take some painkillers, and he told me he thought she’d died of a drug overdose.”

Mr Olteanu, a tattooist, remembered the woman coming into the shop “within a week” of her death and allegedly seeing Mr Russell reopening the hand where he had implanted the snowflake.

He claimed it was a “general thing” for Mr Russell to tell his clients to come see him “before they go to a doctor” if complications arose.

Earlier, former Transition barber Lawrence O’Neil told the court the woman “never said bad things” about Mr Russell, even when she was struggling with migraines and swelling after the snowflake procedure.

Mr O’Neil said he spoke with the woman on the phone and she claimed to have felt like an infection was “running through her body”.

“I remember we were talking about how bad she was feeling and her migraines was unbelievably bad,” he said.

“I was trying to stress to her to … go to a hospital.”

Brendan Russell is also charged with the alleged mutilation of a woman's genitalia at Newcastle.
Camera IconBrendan Russell is also charged with the alleged mutilation of a woman's genitalia at Newcastle. Credit: Supplied

After she died, he alleged Mr Russell was adamant it was caused after her neighbours “had given her drugs for her migraines”.

“The majority of the funeral he tried to convince me her neighbours made her have a drug overdose,” he said.

Central Coast man Mr Russell has pleaded not guilty to charges including manslaughter, female genital mutilation and causing grievous bodily harm.

The charges relate to three separate procedures – including a tummy tuck – on different women between January 2015 and April 2017.

The trial continues.

Originally published as Body modifier claimed drug overdose killed woman who received snowflake procedure

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