Buttock-boosting case nears its painful end: DiManno

The buttock enhancement procedure can perhaps be described as half-assed: A caulking gun, a syringe, Krazy Glue and silicone oil.

Injection of the lift-and-shape gel occurred in motel rooms.

But for the clients who sought a perky derriere, the endgame was played out in emergency departments, attached to IV antibiotic drips during lengthy hospital admissions, repeated surgeries, chronic pain, complicated abscesses, disfigurement and the prospect of lifelong health complications.

It was assault with a weapon: A needle and an illegal substance — PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate), approved for use in Canada only in bone-reconstruction surgery.

Marilyn Ely Reid was pumping the toxic substance into women’s fannies.

Caulking gun attached to a syringe, plunge and infuse, all the while assuring there’d be no ill effects. “Just a nice plump butt.”

The 49-year-old is neither doctor nor nurse. She did, however, present herself as an angel of shape-shifting miracles for droopy-bum “patients” unhappy with their bodies.

“You cannot do this to the naïve and the trusting,” Crown attorney Allison MacPherson told a sentencing hearing Friday. “The law is geared to protect the lambs, not the lions. She preyed on the naïve like a wolf.”

Reid has pleaded guilty to eight counts of aggravated assault.

MacPherson: “She wounded them. She maimed them. She endangered their lives. And she continues to endanger their lives.”

The slight-built Venezuelan-born Reid — she also faces deportation — has been in custody for two and a half years. Her lawyer, Calvin Berry, has asked for time served — at the going rate of 1:5 to 1 — and three years probation. The crown seeks a prison sentence of 10 to 12 years. Justice Jane Kelly has reserved her decision until March 26.

Reid told Kelly on Friday that she is oh so sorry.

“I have no excuse. I never tried to hurt anybody. Most of those girls were my friends. I never lied to them. I never told them I was a doctor.

“If I knew today what I didn’t know then, I would not do it.”

A pre-sentencing report entered as an exhibit describes Reid as somewhat less than oh so sorry. “The subject expression of remorse may be ingenuous as revealed by her efforts to excuse her behavior,” states the report, from Reid’s probation officer.

A mitigating factor offered by Barry is the abusive relationship Reid was in with an abusive and drug-addicted boyfriend.

MacPherson countered that it was all about the money. Reid charged — and demanded cash up front — from $3,500 to $7,200, depending on the number of injections required, purportedly because some backsides were more resistant to the treatment so more product was needed, though discounts were offered.

It remains unclear how Reid came by her knowledge of PMMA, though it should be noted that her ex-husband was a petroleum engineer. The substance, not approved for cosmetic surgery, is usually obtained in liquid form from South American countries. Reid would arrive for the motel appointments carrying it — and the other tools of her trade — in a silver cosmetics travelling case.

Some clients were originally pleased with the result, recommending the procedure to friends and relatives. Inevitably, though, the horrible after-effects would become evident, necessitating removal of the gel to the extent possible. But the diffuse substance, an industrial silicone, having seeped into muscle and tissue, can’t ever be completely evacuated, which is why it lingers as a health threat. Unlike contained silicone implants for breast augmentation, it can’t be removed in one surgical scoop.

Only one of the affected clients, a former professional dancer, provided a victim impact statement Friday, her identity protected by a publication ban. She described the lesions and acute pain she’s suffered since, recurring infections and mental anguish. “I felt betrayed by the accused. I lost my self-confidence and my motivation in life, given that I have so many complexes concerning my buttocks, the way it has become . . . I am even traumatized to show myself naked before my partner.”

The agreed statement of facts tells of another woman who was sent to Reid by her sister, who had already undergone the procedure after seeing Reid’s online advertisement with before-and-after photos.

Lying on a towel on the motel room bed, the victim watched Reid fill a syringe that was inserted into her buttock. Reid then took a caulking gun and attached it to the syringe. “The liquid was very thick and as (Reid) was pumping the product into the victim’s body a loud pop occurred and the victim winced in pain as liquid leaked out of the caulking gun,” says the statement.

Reid removed the needle from the caulking gun, pumped air out of the syringe, then screen it back into the gun and continued pumping.

That woman fell immediately ill (as did her sister later, with a leg abscess). Within days, unable to walk, in intolerable pain, she was taken to hospital by ambulance. A CT scan revealed tracks of air within the fat and muscle in her buttocks. Though a surgeon cleared the infection, the symptoms ultimately worsened and would spend four weeks receiving antibiotics intravenously in hospital. The attending doctor — who said the woman could have died from complications had she not sought medical treatment in time — was so concerned that he summoned police, who launched their investigation.

Subsequently, other Reid clients who saw the news coverage came forward with stories of hospitalizations, ghastly abscesses, cysts and leakage from the syringe perforations, which in at least one instance Reid tried to stanch with Krazy Glue.

On that occasion, the woman recalled how the gun-and-syringe device malfunctioned, and the contents “started squirting out.” When the area punctured continued to leak for days, Reid applied glue to a bandage and stuck it on the incision.

In the pre-sentencing report, Reid is described as having been born with both male and female sexual organs — a hermaphrodite. Raised as a female, her mother says Reid underwent surgery for the condition at a young age. Reid told the probation officer she didn’t remember that, had only learned of the medical procedure when in her 20s, preparing to marry, but had long wondered about the deep tone of her voice.

Reid, who lived in England for years with her ex-husband and later allegedly practiced as a nurse in Spain — though she can’t find the documents proving that — and always claimed to be her own walking advertisement best client, baring her bottom to patients so they could inspect her handiwork.

Evidence to that boast was not presented in court.

Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.