Marius Gustavson: ‘Eunuch maker’ claimed £18,500 disability benefits after having leg amputated, court hears
The leader of an extreme body modification ring claimed £18,500 in disability benefits after being the “willing victim” of a procedure to amputate his leg, a court has been told.
Warning: The following article contains graphic details of extreme physical mutilation
Norwegian national Marius Gustavson, 46, set up the “eunuch maker” website, where people subscribed and were charged a pay-per-view fee in order to watch footage of the procedures, the Old Bailey was told.
Caroline Carberry KC said he led the “widespread practice” of extreme body modification over more than five years, including “the removal of genitals and testicles, clamping of testicles to the point of castration and the freezing of a limb required to be amputated”.
Ten men have been charged over their alleged participation in the practice, including Damien Byrnes, 36, nurse Nathaniel Arnold, 48, and Jacob Crimi-Appleby, 23, who are being sentenced at the Old Bailey after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm (GBH).
Gustavson was said to be the “willing victim” when Byrnes cut off his penis, Arnold removed the tip of his nipple and Crimi-Appleby froze his left leg at his flat in Harringay, north London.
Gustavson, who has admitted charges including conspiracy to commit GBH, faces sentencing at a later date and was refused permission by Judge Mark Lucraft KC to attend Friday’s hearing.
Jacob Crimi-Appleby admitted freezing Gustavson’s leg
Crimi-Appleby, from Epsom, Surrey, has admitted freezing Gustavson’s left leg so that it had to be amputated in February 2019.
They first started communicating when Crimi-Appleby was 17, but he told Gustavson he was 18.
He said he was interested in castration and Gustavson told Crimi-Appleby that he was a “great age”, and encouraged him to have the procedure.
They began a sexual relationship in early 2019, with Gustavson boasting about other modifications and keeping the testicles of other men in a jar, which Crimi-Appleby thought was “awesome”.
A video for the eunuch maker website shows Gustavson sitting on a bed with his left leg in a bucket saying “ooh this is cold” as Crimi-Appleby adds dry ice.
Gustavson was treated at the Royal Free Hospital following the procedure, which lasted at least eight hours and eventually resulted in his left leg being amputated below the knee.
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Medical notes state: “Self-amputation by freezing the leg can pose risks to both life and limb.”
He was discharged around two months after the amputation and received £18,500 in benefits between July 2019 and October 2021 after making a successful claim for Personal Independent Payment – to help people with extra costs of living with a health condition or disability.
Byrnes, who was initially hired by Gustavson as an escort, “readily agreed” to perform a modification, knowing it would be filmed and uploaded to the website to generate revenue, the court was told.
His face was clearly shown in the video of him removing Gustavson’s penis using a kitchen knife in what was described as “a life-threatening procedure performed in a non-medical environment”.
He is heard to say: “Well that’s one off the bucket list. I never expected that one,” and asks Gustavson: “Would you eat humans?”
Gustavson called an ambulance following the procedure and was taken to hospital for treatment.
The court heard Byrnes, from Tottenham, north London, was initially offered £500 and his motivation was “financial rather than sexual”, although it is not clear how much he was paid.
Arnold, from South Kensington, west London, admitted removing the tip of Gustavson’s nipple with a disposable surgical blade in the summer 2019.
He also admitted the theft of local anaesthetic lidocaine from the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where he worked in the dermatology unit as a nurse, and possession of extreme pornography.
Referred to as “Nurse Nate” in messages by Gustavson, the prosecutor said he was both a “victim”, having undergone a genital mutilation procedure himself, and a perpetrator of harm.
The case continues.
UK
Urgent letter to home secretary over violence against women and girls strategy – as it omits child abuse
Ten child protection organisations have written an urgent letter to the home secretary expressing concern about the omission of child sexual abuse from the government’s violence against women and girls strategy, following a Sky News report.
Groups including the NSPCC, Barnardo’s and The Children’s Society wrote to Yvette Cooper to say that violence against women and girls (VAWG) and child sexual abuse are “inherently and deeply connected”, suggesting any “serious strategy” to address VAWG needs to focus on child sexual abuse and exploitation.
The letter comes after Sky News revealed an internal Home Office document, titled Our draft definition of VAWG, which said that child sexual abuse and exploitation is not “explicitly within the scope” of their strategy, due to be published in September.
Poppy Eyre when she was four years old
Responding to Sky News’ original report, Poppy Eyre, who was sexually abused and raped by her grandfather when she was four, said: “VAWG is – violence against women and girls. If you take child sexual abuse out of it, where are the girls?”
The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, which is funded by the Home Office and a signatory to the letter, estimates 500,000 children in England and Wales are sexually abused every year.
The NSPCC “welcome” the government’s pledge to halve VAWG in a decade, but is “worried that if they are going to fulfil this commitment, the strategy absolutely has to include clear deliverable objectives to combat child sexual abuse and exploitation too”, the head of policy, Anna Edmundson, told Sky News.
Poppy is a survivor of child sexual abuse
She warned the government “will miss a golden opportunity” and the needs of thousands of girls will be “overlooked” if child sexual abuse and exploitation is not “at the heart of its flagship strategy”.
The government insists the VAWG programme will include action to tackle child sexual abuse, but says it also wants to create a distinctive plan to “ensure those crimes get the specialist response they demand”.
“My message to the government is that if you’re going to make child sexual abuse a separate thing, we need it now,” Poppy told Sky News.
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Rape Crisis, which is one of the largest organisations providing support to women in England and Wales, shares these concerns.
It wants plans to tackle child sexual abuse to be part of the strategy, and not to sit outside it.
“If a violence against women and girls strategy doesn’t include sexual violence towards girls, then it runs the risk of being a strategy for addressing some violence towards some females, but not all,” chief executive Ciara Bergman said.
A Home Office spokesperson said the government is “working tirelessly to tackle the appalling crimes of violence against women and girls and child sexual exploitation and abuse, as part of our Safer Streets mission”.
“We are already investing in new programmes and introducing landmark laws to overhaul the policing and criminal justice response to these crimes, as well as acting on the recommendations of Baroness Casey’s review into group-based Child Sexual Exploitation, and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse,” they added.
UK
Man and boy arrested on suspicion of arson after restaurant fire leaves two in critical condition
A 54-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy have been arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life after a restaurant fire in east London on Friday.
Three people were taken to hospital in a life-threatening condition after the fire at the Indian Aroma in Ilford.
Two remained in a critical condition on Sunday morning, according to the Metropolitan Police.
The restaurant suffered extensive damage in the blaze.
Two further victims are thought to have left the scene before officers arrived, Scotland Yard said.
Woodford Avenue from above. Pic: UK News and Pictures
Police are still trying to identify them.
CCTV footage seen by the PA news agency appears to show a group of people wearing face coverings walk into the restaurant and pour liquid on the floor.
Seconds later, the inside of the restaurant is engulfed in flames.
“While we have made two arrests, our investigation continues at pace so we can piece together what happened on Friday evening,” said the Met Police’s DCI Mark Rogers.
“I know the community [is] concerned and shocked by this incident.
The moment the fire broke out.
“I would urge anyone with any information or concerns to come forward and speak to police.”
Hospital porter Edward Thawe went to help after hearing screams from his nearby home.
He described the scene as “horrible” and “more than scary and the sort of thing that you don’t want to look at twice.”
He said: “I heard screaming and people saying they had called the police.”
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The 43-year-old said he saw a woman and a severely burned man who may have been customers.
Another witness, who did not want to be named, said he saw three “severely burned” people being doused by the emergency services and given oxygen.
“I can only imagine the pain they were going through,” he said.
On Saturday, the London Ambulance Service told Sky News: “We sent resources to the scene, including ambulance crews, an advanced paramedic, an incident response officer and paramedics from our hazardous area response team.
“We treated five people for burns and smoke inhalation. We took two patients to a major trauma centre and three others to local hospitals.”
The police investigation is continuing.
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