Warning: Contains Graphic Images
Tattooist Brendan McCarthy – nicknamed ‘Dr Evil’ – has been given a four year and three month prison sentence after admitting to three counts of grievous bodily harm.
50-year-old McCarthy carried out nipple and ear removals, as well as tongue splitting procedures, on willing customers at his Wolverhampton studio, Dr Evil’s Body Modification Emporium.
The City of Wolverhampton Council was made aware of these procedures when somebody informed them McCarthy had removed a person’s ears. The ear removal took place in 2015, without the use of anaesthetic.
McCarthy admitted to the charges after the Court of Appeal stated his clients’ written consent to the procedures did not constitute a defence.
While passing the sentence, Judge Nawaz described the body modification performed by McCarthy as unregulated, stating the defendant had only been registered as a tattooist and cosmetic piercer.
As reported by Sky News, Judge Nawaz made the following statement:
He had no qualifications to carry out surgical procedures or to deal with any adverse consequences which could have arisen.
There is a clear public interest element. There is also a need for deterrent.
Sky News reported how McCarthy screamed as the judge gave the sentence at Wolverhampton Crown Court, with some of his supporters in the public gallery reduced to tears.
As reported by Birmingham Live, prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith QC made the following comments regarding McCarthy’s guilty pleas:
The prosecution have accepted that the customers in this case consented to the procedures performed by the defendant.
That involved the removal of an ear, secondly the division of a tongue to create a forked tongue, and thirdly the removal of a nipple.
Police contacted the man whose ears were removed in 2015 after McCarthy pleaded guilty. The man reportedly ‘felt like he had been deceived’, as he had believed the procedure in question to be legal.
Grieves-Smith stated:
He stated that had he known it was illegal, he would never have had the procedure because he certainly was not that desperate to have his ear removed.
Defence QC Andrew Smith had asked the judge to not give McCarthy a prison sentence:
I accept that the conduct Mr McCarthy has pleaded guilty to must cross the custodial threshold.
But nevertheless in the exceptional circumstances of this case, the court could properly suspend any such sentence.
Smith proceeded to highlight McCarthy’s remorse:
Each individual actively sought the procedures. It came about as an extension of the work he had historically undertaken in respect of body-piercing and tattooing.
The defendant is plainly remorseful… expressed through pleas of guilty and expressed in his discussion with the Probation Service.
An online petition in support of McCarthy gained 13,000 signatures, describing him as a ‘knowledgable, skillful and hygienic’ body piercer.
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.