An ‘extreme body modification artist’ has shaved years off his prison sentence after being jailed for murdering one of his female clients and causing long-term harm to two others.
Brendan Leigh Russell, 42, was sentenced to 10 years in prison last year after being found guilty of a string of crimes, including his role in the death of a female client.
Following a trial by a judge, he was found guilty of manslaughter, intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm and female genital mutilation in connection with procedures carried out on three women between 2015 and 2017.
One of his victims, who cannot be identified and who saw him as a “God,” was found dead in her Central Coast home after having a synthetic snowflake implant implanted in her hand at his studio in the Erina Fair shopping center.
The court was told that the woman had returned to Russell’s studio several times before her death complaining that she was experiencing pain and swelling in her right hand due to an infection.
Russell (pictured) will serve a seven-year prison sentence instead of the ten years he was sentenced to
Two days after her last visit to Russell, she was found dead of blood poisoning. After a court trial in 2021, the body modifier was found guilty of her manslaughter.
Russell was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm after performing a botched tummy tuck on another woman in 2016.
A third charge of female genital mutilation related to the removal of part of a woman’s labia, with her consent, in January 2015.
The court heard the woman, who cannot be identified, experienced pain for 12 months, was unable to use tampons and experienced discomfort when wearing underwear.
Last year, Russell was sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison with a non-parole period of seven years and six months. However, he appealed his convictions and sentence.
Body modification artist Brendan Russell put a snowflake inside a 30-year-old woman who later died of blood poisoning. Image: supplied.
In a ruling on Friday, the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction for female genital mutilation.
At an appeal hearing earlier this year, his lawyer Mark Tedeschi KC successfully argued that the offense of female genital mutilation does not apply to adult women who have consented to the procedure and who do not undergo the operation due to ritual practices.
Russell also appealed the length of his prison sentence, arguing it was manifestly excessive.
However, Judges Andrew Bell, Kristina Stern and Natalie Adams upheld his sentence as well as his other two convictions.
He was again sentenced to seven years in prison, with a non-parole period of five years and three months. The body modifier is eligible for release in December 2026.
Russell, who went by the name BSlice in the body modification industry, traveled around Australia demonstrating his skills with tools such as scalpels and body hooks at modification exhibitions.
He also carried out procedures at his tattoo and body modification studio in Erina on the NSW Central Coast and at Tribal Urge tattoo studio in Newcastle.