The leader of a “grisly and gross” extreme body modification network who streamed mutilations on his “eunuch maker” website has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years.
Marius Gustavson, 46, was the “arch manipulator” of vulnerable victims and was said to have been involved in at least 29 procedures, which were “little short of human butchery,” the Old Bailey in London heard.
The “large-scale, dangerous and extremely disturbing” four-year enterprise included castrations, the use of clamps to crush testicles, penis removals, the freezing of limbs and the electrocution of a 16-year-old boy, which were streamed on Gustavson’s website.
The “busy and lucrative business” is estimated to have taken more than £300,000 from its 22,841 paying subscribers across the world between 2017 and 2021.
Gustavson, who had previously admitted charges including conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm, appeared for sentence via video link alongside six other men who had all admitted their part in the scheme. The charges relate to 13 victims who are being safeguarded by specialist detectives.
Judge Mark Lucraft, the recorder of London and most senior judge at the Old Bailey, said as he announced the sentence: “Gustavson, you are very much the mastermind behind this grayly and gross enterprise. “It was a business which was both busy and lucrative.”
He added: “The footage uploaded was extremely explicit and made available to paying subscribers no doubt so they could watch it for their sexual gratification. “It was a large-scale, dangerous and extremely disturbing enterprise.”
Prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC said there was “clear evidence” of cannibalism and that Gustavson, a Norwegian national, had cooked testicles for lunch in an “artfully arranged salad platter.” He also kept removed genitalia as “trophies” in a fridge at his home in Harringay, north London, and “sold” body parts to others.
The three-day sentencing hearing was told that the procedures were carried out with kitchen knives or surgical scalpels and left victims writing in pain and needing medical attention. Gustavson’s film-production techniques began to take on a more and more professional feel as the number of procedures increased.
The procedures were filmed and uploaded to the website, and subscribers paid to watch, with varying levels of membership from “free” to “VIP”, which cost £100, the court heard.
The practice is linked to a subculture where men become “nullos”, short for genital nullification, by having their penis and testicles removed.
The scale of the operation he and other “like-minded individuals” ran was “without precedent,” Carberry said, saying it was “impossible to know” the full scale of the offending.
In a video of one incident, which was played in court, one of the group’s victims was branded with the letters “EM”, for eunuch maker, on the back of his calf. The man later complained to police about Gustavson and his “circle of acolytes,” and an investigation was launched.
In a victim impact statement, the branded man described Gustavson as a “lunatic” who had put together a “slick, professional website.”
The other six defendants admitted conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.
The judge said: “I am entirely satisfied that the motivation of all those involved were a mix of sexual gratification as well as financial reward.”
Gustavson pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm, five counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, making and distributing an indecent photograph of a child, and possession of criminal property.
Peter Wates, 67, of Purley, Surrey, a retired former member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Janus Atkin, 38, of Newport, Gwent, who had been completing a veterinary course, was jailed for 12 years.
Ion Ciucur, 30, of Gretna, Scotland, received five years and eight months imprisonment, and Stefan Scharf, 61, of no fixed address, was sentenced to four and a half years in jail.
David Carruthers, 61, and Ashley Williams, 32, of Newport, Gwent, were jailed for 11 years and four years, six months respectively.
In January, three men were sentenced after admitting causing grievous bodily harm to Gustavson. Damien Byrnes, 36, from north London, was jailed for five years for removing Gustavson’s penis with a kitchen knife on video at his home on 18 February 2017.
Jacob Crimi-Appleby, 23, from Epsom in Surrey, was jailed for three years and eight months for freezing Gustavson’s leg leading to the need for him to be amputated in February 2019.
Nathan Arnold, 48, from South Kensington, west London, received a two-year suspended sentence for the partial removal of Gustavson’s nipple with a scalpel in the summer of 2019.
