Woman takes Ex-Husband to Court for allowing Daughter to get Tattoo

An Australian woman has taken her Ex-husband to Court for giving their sixteen-year-old daughter permission to get a tattoo.

On Wednesday, Bradley Victory, 45, pleaded not guilty in Picton Local Court outside Sydney to charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm & wounding a person with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

On Thursday, the news agency reported that the charges stem from an ankle tattoo of a dreamcatcher, a symbol with Native American origins.

His ex-wife Nadene Rees brought the private prosecution. Private individuals can prosecute others in Australian Courts in circumstances in which police won't lay charges.

Their daughter, Casey Victory, who has turned seventeen since she got the tattoo last New Year's Eve, supported her father in Court. "It's horrible ... Dad's done nothing wrong & it was my choice to get it done," she told the newspaper.

She added that "Dad ummed & aahed about it ... Dad's like: 'I'm not going to be hypocritical'-- he's got tattoos".

Under New South Wales state law, it is illegal to tattoo anyone under the age of 18 without written permission from a parent or guardian.

Defence lawyer Carolyn Shiels told the court in a letter that the daughter had had no contact with her mother in 3 years. Shiels confirmed the father had signed the consent form.

Court documents show that parental responsibility for the daughter is shared equally between the mother, father & the father's parents. The case will return to Court in Sept.

Bradley Victory told the newspaper outside Court: "She was 16, she got a tattoo & her mother doesn't want her to have a tattoo." 

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