Tourist denies boob job killing
A Chinese tourist who is battling allegations she caused the death of a woman during a breast augmentation inside a Sydney beauty clinic has argued she wasn’t responsible for the tragedy and had been asked to perform the procedure.
Jie Shao, 40, is standing trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court where she has pleaded not guilty to causing the death of beauty clinic manager Jean Huang nearly seven years ago.
Ms Shao has pleaded guilty to using a poison to endanger life but is fighting the more serious charge of manslaughter relating to the death of Ms Huang, 35.
The court has heard Ms Huang died after undergoing the procedure to have filler material injected into her breasts at the Medi Beauty Clinic in Chippendale on August 30, 2017.
Ms Huang was rushed to hospital after she began convulsing and foaming at the mouth and went into cardiac arrest.
She was declared brain dead and her life support was turned off two days later.
The Crown Prosecution has alleged that Ms Shao caused the death of Ms Huang after she administered painkiller Tramadol, an anaesthetic Lidocaine and a breast filler during the procedure.
The court has heard that Ms Huang died of Lidocaine toxicity and was given a dose of the anaesthetic well above the maximum recommended dosage.
Ms Huang was a part owner and operated the Chippendale beauty clinic and was put in touch with Ms Shao via a sister clinic in Melbourne.
Ms Shao’s barrister, Winston Terracini SC, on Tuesday described the clinic as “dodgy”, saying it was avoiding paying tax, did not have registered nurses on hand or the proper safety equipment.
“Who ran the clinic? Not the accused. Who was in charge of the equipment? Not the accused. Who hired the people who were supposedly nurses? Not the accused,” Mr Terracini said during his closing address to the jury on Tuesday.
He also noted that Ms Shao had admitted to administering the Lidocaine, as was evidenced by her guilty plea to the lesser charge.
He said Ms Shao made an “egregious, terrible error”, but said she had little to no knowledge of the clinic.
Mr Terracini said she was not responsible for killing Ms Huang, noting there was evidence that Ms Huang had asked for the breast augmentation to be performed.
“The deceased asked the accused to carry out the procedure,” Mr Terracini said.
“The deceased asked the accused how to do it. The deceased asked her to do what she wanted, to enlarge her breasts… Where is the evidence that the accused put herself forward to say ‘well look I specialise in this, I’ll do this for you’. There’s none.”
The Crown prosecution has told the court that Ms Shao made herself out to be a doctor however was not licensed in either Australia or China.
The court heard on Tuesday Ms Shao said in her police interview that she was only supposed to perform the procedure on one side of Ms Huang to demonstrate the procedure for a doctor, who would do the other half.
Crown prosecutor Sara Gul argued that Ms Shao was in Sydney to perform the procedure and that it was intended that she would do it all.
“Even on her own version she was planning on doing a procedure, even if it was half, she was planning on conducting this procedure on Ms Huang … Part of an arrangement to do the procedure and it was the entire reason she was in Sydney.”
The trial continues.
