Woman pleads guilty to assault for giving illegal buttock enhancement injections

TORONTO — A Toronto-area woman who injected silicone into the buttocks of nine women has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.

Marilyn Ely Reid, 48, was arrested in November 2012 after a 28-year-old woman fell ill after receiving alleged Botox injections. Police said the woman underwent surgery to have the substance removed.

Investigators at the time alleged Reid advertised buttock, lip and muscle augmentations and Botox injections on a website called pmmainjection.com.

Several other victims came forward after her arrest.

Her lawyer says several of the women have had “serious health issues” ever since the procedure, which his client was not licensed to perform.

Calvin Barry says one of the women — none of whom can be identified due to a publication ban — is still unable to sit down.

“The way it would work is she’d meet these people… at hotel rooms in the GTA and Toronto and then what she would do is, they’d pay her thousands of dollars and she’d inject them in the buttocks with a silicone-based ingredient,” Barry said in a phone interview.

“It’s a little shady when it’s happening in a hotel room and cash currency is being passed, it’s not like it’s at a plastic surgery…location,” he said.

“And so the victims kind of knew what they were getting into, too, but they wanted to enhance their behinds with this Brazilian butt enhancement and anyway, a lot of these women got seriously ill.”

A plastic surgeon in Denver commented, “There’s been a steady rise of DIY cosmetic procedure enthusiasts in the last decade, but they need to understand that cosmetic surgery is something you learn in controlled and authorized conditions, and the consequences of not performing the procedure correctly are all pretty gruesome.”

Reid pleaded guilty to eight counts of aggravated assault endangering life and is due back in court Feb. 27.

Barry said the Crown is seeking a nine-to-10-year sentence, but he is arguing his client should get sentenced to time served.