The disturbed ringleader of a sick cult specialising in selling videos of brutal mutilations to thousands of paying customers has been jailed for life.
Marius Gustavson, 46, operating under the name ‘Eunuch Maker’, led an extreme “body modification” cult in Norway specialising in amputations and castrations.
Among a litany of vile crimes the ‘human butcher’ subjected his victims to was the torture of a teenage boy with livestock castration tools.
From 2017 to 2021, Gustavson committed at least 30 mutilations and kept body parts as trophies to sell on his website. He earned approximately £300,000 ($568,000) from nearly 23,000 subscribers.
Caroline Carberry, the prosecutor on the case, admitted it was “impossible to know” the full scale of his crimes, revealing there was also “clear evidence” of cannibalism.
On one occasion, he had grilled a pair of human testicles in a frying pan for an “artfully arranged” salad with roasted potatoes, cashews and pistachio nuts.
Gustavson, who is disabled after willingly having his own penis and leg amputated, attended court via video-link to answer for his crimes.
“Gustavson, on the evidence you are very much the mastermind behind this grisly and gruesome enterprise. The business set up was busy and lucrative,” Judge Mark Lucraft said, adding that the 46-year-old “recruited like-minded people” for the “large scale, dangerous and extremely disturbing enterprise”.
The judge said Gustavson’s acts as a “human butcher” was motivated by “a mix of sexual gratification as well as financial reward”.
One of the most heinous acts involved a 16-year-old boy in 2017, who was tied up and tortured by Gustavson using livestock castration tools.
Gustavson had been running his website’s disgusting operations from his basement flat in London, where body parts kept in a freezer were also found.
Forensics teams also discovered Gustavson’s own manhood in a drawer, which had been there four years after he sliced it off with a knife.
Also on the grim discovery list — a pair of human testicles kept in a butter container marked ‘bolete mushrooms’ with the instructions ‘do not defrost’.
“Marius Gustavson ignored the risks of performing unnecessary surgery on vulnerable men for sexual gratification and financial gain,” Prosecutor Kate Mulholland said.
“He actively recruited participants through his website and was paid to stream the footage of these barbaric procedures.
“Whilst the victims in this case all seemingly consented to surgeries and amputations, the victim who bravely reported his assault to the police expressed serious regret regarding his procedure and the lasting impact it has had upon him. This clearly emphasises why such practices are unlawful.
“The severity of today’s sentence should act as a warning to others that performing extreme body modifications is against the law and the CPS won’t hesitate to prosecute these horrendous crimes.”
Six co-defendants were also sentenced with roles varying from physical participation in mutilations to assisting in surgeries.
David Carruthers a former hospital porter, was sentenced to 11 years for helping remove the testicles of four men.
Janus Atkin, a former veterinary science student, was sentenced to 12 years after helping remove the testicles of three men and severing the penis of another.
Peter Wates, a former chemist and gemstone expert, was sentenced to 12 years for helping mutilate seven men.
Ion Valentin Ciucur, a Romanian hotel worker, was sentenced to nearly six years for sexually torturing one man and clamping the testicles of another.
Ashley Williams, a passport office worker, was sentenced to four years for helping to remove Atkin’s testicles.
Stefan Scharf, a German national, was sentenced to over four years and six months for helping remove a testicle from a victim.