Ringleader Marius Gustavson removed men’s penises, testicles and legs and wanted to share the clips with “like-minded individuals” on his own “eunuch maker” website. He had 22,841 subscribers around the world
A man who ran an extreme body modification website which saw him carrying out castrations before uploading the footage online, has been jailed for life.
Ringleader Marius Gustavson removed men’s penises, testicles and legs and wanted to share the clips with “like-minded individuals” on a scale the court heard was “without precedent”. The gruesome operations were uploaded to the 26-year-old Norwegian’s “eunuch maker” website where subscribers would pay to watch.
He made nearly £300,000 over four years from the site’s 22,841 subscribers around the world. The eye-watering practice is linked to a subculture where men become ‘nullos’ – short for genital nullification – by having their penis and testicles removed.
Gustavson kept a freezer full of men’s body parts and cooked himself a testicle salad for lunch, the court heard. He froze his own leg off and had his penis removed, then claimed disability payments.
Today he was handed a life sentence and must serve a minimum of 22 years before he can be released. During an earlier court hearing prosecutor Caroline Carberry, KC, said: ‘”Gustavson set up a website on which he advertised extreme body modification services such as male castration and penis removal.
“It is an incredible feature of this case the website operated in plain sight, not on the dark web, but accessible to anyone who stumbled upon it and had the inclination and the means to view the gruesome footage. This footage, which is extremely explicit, was uploaded.
“Users could pay to subscribe or buy individual videos. There is evidence the victims were promised a sum of money from the video revenue. Gustavson recruited like-minded individuals to assist him in his large scale, dangerous and disturbing enterprise.
“He was a manipulator of victims, who were themselves vulnerable. It is impossible to know how many procedures took place in the years when the Eunuch Maker website was active. Gustavson was involved in a minimum of 30 procedures.”
Defending Gustavson Rashvinderjeet Panesar told the court he had a desire to be “the architect of his own body” after his 11-year marriage broke down in 2016. The lawyer said: “When it came to an end it sent him into a spiral. His modification led him to feelings of empowerment. It appears at face value to be something that’s become an addiction for him.”
Gustavson had not participated in any body modification before the end of his marriage, Mr Panesar said. He now claims he wants to return to his native Norway, where his views are more likely to be accepted.
“Arch manipulator” Gustavson, of Haringey, north London appeared for sentence alongside six other men who had all admitted their part in the lucrative scheme. The charges relate to 13 victims who are being safeguarded by specialist detectives. The wide-ranging conspiracy also involved the removal and trade of body parts, the court was told.
Gustavson pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm, five counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, one count of making an indecent photograph of a child, one count of distributing an indecent photograph of a child and possession of criminal property contrary to Section 329(1) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
Judge Mark Lucraft, KC, the Recorder of London, said: “Gustavson you are very much the mastermind behind this grisly and gruesome enterprise. It was a business which was both busy and lucrative.
|”You came to the UK from Norway around 2012 and through your Eunuch Maker website began to advertise so-called body modification procedures. Many of the procedures carried out were filmed and over time the films were produced to an increasingly professional standard.
“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.
“It appears the victims consented – but as the law in this country makes clear consent is not a defence to what took place. It may be some mitigation, but the performing of such medical processes by the unqualified is eminently dangerous and many may face lifelong issues.
“All the procedures were carried out by the medically unqualified in environments far from sterile. They were conducted in amateurish and dangerous ways. In some instances it is little more than human butchery.
“In some cases medical equipment is used, in others normal household implements were used. In some equipment was used which is usually used to castrate livestock. Many videos were overtly sexual or had clear sexual overtones, many caused great distress and some resulted in the need for immediate emergency medical treatment.
“I am entirely satisfied the motivations of all involved was a mix of sexual gratification as well as sexual reward. In many of the filmed procedures the consequence is severe blood loss and many are in clear and acute pain.
“One is heard on film saying he does not want to die. To many of those looking at this case the activity at the very least will appear to be disgusting and abhorrent.”
Ion Ciucur, 30, of Gretna, Scotland, Peter Wates, of Purley, Surrey, Stefan Scharf, 61, of no fixed address, David Carruthers 61, Janus Atkin, 38, Ashley Williams, 32, all of Newport, Gwent, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm.
Retired chemist Peter Wates, 67, who was involved in nine procedures, was jailed for 12 years.
Former surgical assistant David Carruthers, 61, who kept his own testicles in his chest freezer, was jailed for 11 years while his husband Ashley Williams, 32, was jailed for four years and six months for helping him removing a testicle from Janus Atkin, 39.
Atkin, who studied veterinary science and was involved in eight procedures, was jailed for 12 years.
German Stefan Scharf, 61, was jailed for four years and six months for removing one testicle from a man in Gustavson’s Camden flat while Romanian Ion Ciucur, 30, was jailed for five years and eight months.
Another member of the gang had previously admitted freezing the leg of an alleged ringleader of an extreme body modifications group, which led to the limb needing to be amputated.
Jacob Crimi-Appleby, 22, from Epsom in Surrey, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Marius Gustavson in February 2019. Crimi-Appleby was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison.
Nurse Nathan Arnold, 48, from South Kensington, west London, admitted the partial removal of Gustavson’s nipple with a scalpel in the summer of 2019.
He admitted to stealing anaesthetic between 2016 and 2022 from the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where he had worked and also possessing 72 extreme pornographic images which were described by the judge as “graphic and appalling”. He was handed two years in custody suspended for two years and 100 hours of unpaid work.
