Ringleader of extreme body modifications cult who made £300,000 from his ... trends now

The ringleader of an extreme body modification cult who made £300,000 from livestreaming videos of penises, testicles and legs being removed was today jailed for a minimum of 22 years. 

Marius Gustavson, 46, carried out at least 30 of the vile procedures on men who had been pressured and manipulated into having their bodies mangled while others watched on a website called 'The Eunuch Maker'.

The group had 22,000 paying subscribers and conducted their sick trade completely in the open, with a public website accessible to anyone who stumbled upon it. 

Gustavson headed the business and was described as an 'arch manipulator' who collected a group of 'acolytes' attracted to the deviant business, according to prosecutors, by 'the sexual element of the offending and financial gain'.

The Norwegian kept a freezer full of men's body parts and cooked himself a testicle salad for lunch. He froze his own leg off and had his penis removed before claiming £18,000 in disability benefits while living in north London. 

Gustavson was handed a life sentence at the Old Bailey today and must serve at least 22 years before he can be released.

Six other members of the body modifications cult were also sentenced.

Retired chemist Peter Wates, 67, who was involved in nine procedures, was jailed for 12 years.

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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.

Gustavson, who previously worked in Norway as a postman, received £18,500 in disability benefit after forcing the NHS to amputate his left leg by putting it in dry ice for two hours.

He sold four penises online for £700.

The practice is linked to a subculture where men become 'nullos' - short for genital nullification, by having their penis and testicles removed.

The men claimed they identified as Eunuchs and had to do the operations on each other because they were not available on the NHS.

Gustavson electrocuted the genitals of a 16-year-old and possessed indecent images of children and beastiality porn.

In one message he claimed to have castrated and had sex with an eight-year-old.

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 website operated between 14 January 2018 and 1 March 2021. By March 2021 there were over 22,800 users from across the globe.

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'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.'

Mr Lucraft accepted that the victims apparently consented to the procedures, but added: '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.'

The judge said Gustavson was dangerous and there was a significant risk of him causing serious harm through further offences.

He commended the police team for viewing thousands of images and 400 hours of disturbing footage to identify the defendants and said the investigation had been 'four times the size of a typical murder investigation.'

Gustavson appeared in court via video link from HMP Wandsworth as the Old Bailey cannot accommodate defendants in wheelchair's.

Prosecutor Caroline Carberry, KC, said: 'It is an incredible feature of this case that that website operated in plain sight, not on the dark web, but accessible to anyone who stumbled upon it and had the inclination to view the gruesome footage.

'This footage, which is extremely explicit, was uploaded to eunuchmaker.com. Users could pay to subscribe or buy individual videos.

'There is evidence that 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.

'Those which have been prosecuted are those which have been identified from footage found on hard drives in Gustavson's flat.

'All of these offenders were active in the extreme body modification scene and the consensual removal or mutilation of male genitalia. Gustavson was involved in a minimum of 30 procedures.'

After one of his operations, Gustavson cooked severed testicles for lunch which he ate in a salad he had prepared for himself, she said.

He had taken

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