Six jailed members of a lucrative “human butchery” enterprise can challenge the length of their sentences, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
Mastermind Marius Gustavson and his acolytes carried out male castration, penis removal and other “grisly and gruesome” procedures on an unprecedented scale on people as young as 16, the Old Bailey heard when they were sentenced earlier this year.
Gustavson’s Eunuch Maker pay-per-view website shared footage of people undergoing “dangerous, unnecessary and life-changing surgeries” carried out in people’s homes, the court was told, which netted him more than £300,000 between 2017 and 2021.
Gustavson, 46, of Haringey, north London, was imprisoned for life with a minimum term of 22 years in May, after admitting charges including conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.
Judge Lucraft sentenced the five other men – Janus Atkin, David Carruthers, Ashley Williams, Damien Byrnes and Jacob Crimi-Appleby – to jail terms of between three years and eight months and 12 years for their part in the extreme body modifications plot.
Barristers for the six defendants asked the Court of Appeal for the green light to challenge the length of the jail terms on Tuesday.
In the short hearing at the central London court, three senior judges said an appeal against the sentences could take place.
Mr Justice Murray, sitting with Lord Justice Edis and Judge Shaun Smith KC, said that while it was “thankfully, a highly unusual case”, the appeal was “arguable”.
The Old Bailey heard earlier this year that extreme body modification is linked to a subculture where men become “nullos”, short for genital nullification, by having their penis and testicles removed.
Prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC said Gustavson was linked to at least 29 procedures and that there was “clear evidence of cannibalism”. Images shown to the court also revealed his freezer filled with body parts stored in plastic bags and takeaway containers.
The court heard that the defendants used a wide variety of tools such as clamps used for animal castration, with body parts put up for auction online with a “buy it now” button.
Gustavson also offered to sell the severed penis of one of his victims for hundreds of pounds, with some 22,000 subscribers paying to access videos on the Eunuch Maker website with varying levels of membership from “free” to “VIP”, which cost £100.
The Norwegian was arrested after he used a red-hot iron to brand a man’s calf with the letters EM – for Eunuch Maker – and after he was detained, police found his penis in a drawer of his home in Haringey, north London, four years after it had been amputated.
Gustavson, who attended Tuesday’s hearing via a video link, 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.
The other defendants also admitted their part in the conspiracy relating to 13 victims.
Atkin, 39, Carruthers, 61, and Williams, 33, of Newport, Gwent, were jailed for 12 years, 11 years and four years, six months respectively for conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.
Byrnes, 37, of north London, and Crimi-Appleby, 24, of Epsom, Surrey, were jailed in January having admitted causing grievous bodily harm to Gustavson.
Byrnes was jailed for five years for removing Gustavson’s penis with a kitchen knife on video at his home on 18 February 2017.
Crimi-Appleby was jailed for three years and eight months for freezing Gustavson’s leg leading to the need for it to be amputated in February 2019.
Passing sentence earlier this year, Judge Mark Lucraft KC told Gustavson: “On the evidence you are very much the mastermind behind this grisly and gruesome enterprise. Like-minded individuals were recruited by you, Gustavson, to assist in what became a large-scale, dangerous, and extremely disturbing enterprise.
“The procedures were conducted in amateur and dangerous ways: in some instances it is little more than human butchery. Some procedures were overtly sexual or had clear sexual overtones. Many procedures clearly caused great distress and some resulted in the need for immediate emergency medical treatment.”
He added: “I am entirely satisfied that the motivation of all those involved were a mix of sexual gratification as well as financial reward.”
On Tuesday, Mr Justice Murray said that the three judges were “satisfied that it is at least arguable” that it was “wrong in principle” for Judge Lucraft to use sentencing guidelines for grievous bodily harm with intent, “which are, by definition, non-consensual offences”.
He continued that it was arguable that “the judge did not give sufficient weight to the fact that almost all of the victims… appeared to have been content with the outcome of the body modifications they underwent”.
The full appeal will take place at a later date.
