TWO Dandenong-based tattooist brothers received a suspended jail sentence last week over a sexual abuse incident which led to laws banning underage intimate body piercings in Victoria.
Former Casey councillor Steve Beardon, who pushed for the ban, condemned the sentence, saying the pair deserved to be locked up for their actions "no questions asked".
"The Attorney General needs to step in and and ensure they are sentenced and behind bars," Mr Beardon said.
Mark Andrew Ford, 50, and Gregory Alan Ford, 53, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual penetration of a child under 16.
County Court Judge Wendy Wilmoth sentenced the pair to two years and six months in prison, wholly suspended for three years.
She said that in this unusual case, the penetration of each child was carried out at the child's request and in pursuit of something that might be called a fashion or a fad.
The court heard two schoolgirls, aged 13 and 15, had requested the piercings.
The men failed to ask how old they were.
The Fords' Dandenong firm, Tattoo City, no longer performs intimate piercings. for any customers.
When on the council in 2007, Mr Beardon successfully moved a motion calling on the Municipal Association of Victoria to enlist the support of all Victorian councils to outlaw underage piercing.
Under state laws which took effect from January 1 this year, minors are banned from having their nipples and genitals pierced.
The consent of the parents is required for non-intimate body piercing.
Piercers who give under-18s an intimate piercing risk a $6600 fine.