Faces of women ‘maimed by bogus cosmetic surgeon’
Victims given fake Botox containing beef gelatin, court hears
faces swollen beyond recognition, these three women were left in agony after allegedly being given fake Botox treatment by a bogus cosmetic surgeon.
Ozan Melin is accused of grievous bodily harm and fraud over the treatment of Marcelle King, Jozette sheppard and carol Kingscott.
Mrs King had to go to a&e with anaphylactic shock while Mrs sheppard could not eat or speak properly for months, Bournemouth crown court heard.
Melin, 41, allegedly claimed to be a qualified doctor – but the General Medical council had no record of him.
The court was told he treated the women with large needles using a dangerous fake Botox solution containing ‘beef gelatin’.
Jurors were shown pictures of the women’s disfigured faces in the hours after the injections.
GP receptionist Mrs Kingscott, 57, said she had decided to have Botox treatment in November 2011 to give herself a boost after her marriage broke down.
she paid Melin about £200 to have her brow and the area around her eyes treated.
But when the swelling went down she was left with a droopy brow and eyelid.
Mrs Kingscott told the court: ‘at home firstly I was just getting hot, like I had a bit too much sun. It got hotter and started to swell up. The next morning I looked like a hamster.
‘ I looked like I had been punched because my eyes had closed so much. I knew something wasn’t right. I was thinking maybe I’d had a reaction to it and was feeling a bit foolish. I put calamine lotion on it.
‘One eyelid dropped completely and it was so sore I could barely open them. I was at a particularly low point, my marriage of 27 years had broken up, another reason why I wanted it to give myself a boost. My face was frozen solid after that treatment.’
Mrs sheppard had treatment at the same time as Mrs Kingscott. The 46-year- old told the court: ‘It started swelling by my eyebrows and I had to lie down because I couldn’t open my eyes.
‘When I woke up and couldn’t open my eyes I screamed.
‘It spread down my face. The left side of my face I could hardly move for about three or four months. It was extremely embarrassing, the fact it was because I had Botox. I didn’t want to laugh because I looked stupid, when I laughed my face distorted.
‘apparently I looked very odd when I spoke and eating was a bit messy.’
Mrs King, 62, had Botox to her jowls and brow in July 2013 at the home of a beautician and had to be put on a drip in a&e the next day after suffering anaphylactic shock. she said: ‘When I got home my husband was pulling horrible faces – I started to get lots of blisters and my face started swelling outwards.
‘I had burn blisters all around my eyes, I couldn’t see out of my eyes. I was having trouble moving my neck and wheezing.’
she said she was left looking ‘50 years older’.
Plastic surgeon colin Rayner said he believed the women had been injected with a noxious and extremely dangerous substance. He told the court the beef product – similar to that used in jelly – was potentially allergic when injected and should not be in Botox. samples were found in vials seized from the home of Melin’s then-wife Lisa Bolster.
Mr Rayner said: ‘In my opinion these injections contained no active Botox. The reactions experienced by the three individuals in this case had the potential to be life-threatening.’
Melin, from Uxbridge, West London, ran a mobile clinic called The smooth face Botox company. He denies three counts of causing grievous bodily harm and three charges of fraud.
Miss Bolster, 50, denies fraud for claiming Melin was a doctor. she faces a charge of unauthorised use of a trademark over counterfeit Botox vials found at her home in Lytchett Matravers, Dorset. The trial continues.
‘Potential to be life-threatening’