The ringleader of an extreme body modifications website who had his penis and leg removed and assisted others in cutting off body parts was jailed for life in the UK on Thursday.
Marius Gustavson, 46, was told he would serve a minimum of 22 years behind bars after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm (GBH), and five counts of GBH with intent.
He also admitted 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.
Six other men pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm. They received jail terms of between four-and-a-half and 12 years for their part in the plot.
Sentencing them, judge Mark Lucraft said they were motivated by sexual gratification and financial reward, calling some of the practices “little short of human butchery”.
On one occasion, Gustavson, a Norwegian national, cooked severed human testicles which were then served in a salad, the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey in London was told.
Gustavson and others carried out multiple mutilations on his “eunuch-maker” site, which had 22,000 subscribers and revenues of nearly £300,000 ($375,000) between 2017 and 2021.
The site hosted videos of men amputating parts of their body in a practice linked to the “nullos” subculture, in which men have their genitals removed.
Subscribers paid to watch, with varying levels of membership.
Prosecutor Caroline Carberry told the court that the group used a “wide variety of tools”, including one normally used for “animal castration”.
Gustavson, from north London, instructed a Swedish man, via an online chat, to “maim himself” by cutting off his testicles with a knife, the lawyer said.
The scale of the multiple mutilations carried out by Gustavson and his group was “without precedent”, she added.
The group was also involved in the trade of body parts, the court was told.
Rashvinderjeet Panesar, defending Gustavson, said the breakdown of his marriage was the “trigger” for his activities.
“When it came to an end it sent him into a spiral,” Panesar told court.
“He had a desire to be the architect of his own body. His modification led him to feelings of empowerment.”
Gustavson had his penis removed, keeping it in a drawer in his home, and also had his leg amputated in 2019 after getting a man to freeze it. He then claimed state disability payments.
He now wants to return to his native Norway, where his activities are more likely to be respected, added Panesar.
During a police raid on the home of one of the other six convicted men, David Carruthers, “testicles were found in a chest freezer”, Carberry said.
Alexander Greenwood, defending Carruthers, who was jailed for 11 years, said the testicles belonged to his client.
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