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.
It’s like The Godfather, one reformed drug trafficker tells me.
The mythical gangster film centred on an organised crime dynasty locked in a transfer of power.
Communities in Scotland currently have a front row seat to a new war of violence, torture, and taunts as feuding drug lords and notorious families grapple for control of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
There have been more than a dozen brutal attacks over the past six weeks – ranging from fire bombings to attacks on children and gun violence.
A firebomb attack in Scotland
Victims left for dead, businesses up in flames
Gangsters have filmed themselves setting fire to buildings and homes connected to the associates and relatives of their bitter rivals.
The main aim, they boast, is to “exterminate” the opposition.
The taunting footage, accompanied by the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group, has been plastered over social media as part of a deliberate game of goading.
A 12-year-old boy and 72-year-old woman were left for dead when teenagers wearing balaclavas burst into a home in north Glasgow.
Garages and businesses have gone up in flames. Shots were fired at an Edinburgh house.
Signals are being sent of who wants control of Scotland’s dark criminal underworld.
A firebomb attack that saw a man throw an incendiary device through a building window
The fire attack set to the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group
What’s caused the gang war?
The former director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, Graeme Pearson, explains how a “vacuum of leadership” is playing a part.
Last October, Glasgow-based cocaine kingpin Jamie Stevenson, known as The Iceman, was jailed after orchestrating a £100m cocaine shipment stashed in banana boxes from South America.
The mob leader was one of Britain’s most wanted, running his business like another on-screen criminal enterprise: The Sopranos.
The 59-year-old fugitive went on the run before eventually being hunted and apprehended by police while out jogging in the Netherlands.
Jamie Stevenson. Pic: Police Scotland
Pic: Crown Office
‘Old scores to settle’
But paranoia was running rife about how this notorious gangster could be brought down. Was there a grass? Was it one of their own?
It further fuelled divisions and forced new alliances to be forged across Scotland’s organised criminal networks.
It wasn’t until The Iceman case came to court that it was revealed an encrypted messaging platform, known as EncroChat, had been infiltrated by law enforcement.
It ultimately led to Stevenson pleading guilty.
Ex-senior drug enforcement officer Mr Pearson told Sky News: “It is a complex picture because you have got people who are in prison who still want to have influence outside and look after what was their business.
“On the outside you’ve got wannabes who are coming forward, and they think this is an opportunity for them, and you have got others have old scores to settle that they could not settle when crime bosses were around.”
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Graeme Pearson
Mr Pearson describes a toxic mix swirling to create outbursts of violence unfolding in Scotland.
He concluded: “All that mixes together – and the greed for the money that comes from drugs, and from the kudos that comes from being a ‘main man’, and you end up with competition, violence, and the kind of incidents we have seen over the past four to six weeks.”
New wave of violence ‘barbaric’
Glasgow man Mark Dempster is a former addict, dealer, and drug smuggler who is now an author and respected counsellor helping people quit drinking and drugs.
He describes the “jostle for power” as not a new concept among Glasgow’s high profile gangland families.
Mark Dempster
“There is always going to be someone new who wants to control the markets. It is like The Godfather. There is no difference between Scotland, Albania, or India,” he said.
Mr Dempster suggests a shift in tactics in Glasgow and Edinburgh in recent weeks, with 12-year-olds being viciously attacked in the middle of the night.
“It is barbaric. When young people, children, get pulled into the cross fire. It takes it to a different level.
“At least with the old mafiosa they had an unwritten rule that no children, no other family members. You would deal directly with the main people that were your opposition.”
Police Scotland is racing to get control of the situation, but declined to speak to Sky News about its ongoing operation.
It has been suggested 100 officers are working on this case, with “arrests imminent”.
But this is at the very sharp end of sophisticated criminal empires where the police are not feared, there are fierce vendettas and, clearly, power is up for grabs.
UK
Laws may need to be bolstered to crack down on exploitation of child ‘influencers’, senior MP suggests
Laws may need to be strengthened to crack down on the exploitation of child “influencers”, a senior Labour MP has warned.
Chi Onwurah, chair of the science, technology and innovation committee, said parts of the Online Safety Act – passed in October 2023 – may already be “obsolete or inadequate”.
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Experts have raised concerns that there is a lack of provision in industry laws for children who earn money through brand collaborations on social media when compared to child actors and models.
This has led to some children advertising in their underwear on social media, one expert has claimed.
Those working in more traditional entertainment fields are safeguarded by performance laws, which strictly govern the hours a minor can work, the money they earn and who they are accompanied by.
The Child Influencer Project, which has curated the world’s first industry guidelines for the group, has warned of a “large gap in UK law” which is not sufficiently filled by new online safety legislation.
Official portrait of Chi Onwurah.
Pic: UK Parlimeant
The group’s research found that child influencers could be exposed to as many as 20 different risks of harm, including to dignity, identity, family life, education, and their health and safety.
Ms Onwurah told Sky News there needs to be a “much clearer understanding of the nature of child influencers ‘work’ and the legal and regulatory framework around it”.
She said: “The safety and welfare of children are at the heart of the Online Safety Act and rightly so.
“However, as we know in a number of areas the act may already be obsolete or inadequate due to the lack of foresight and rigour of the last government.”
Victoria Collins, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for science, innovation and technology, agreed that regulations “need to keep pace with the times”, with child influencers on social media “protected in the same way” as child actors or models.
“Liberal Democrats would welcome steps to strengthen the Online Safety Act on this front,” she added.
‘Something has to be done’
MPs warned in 2022 that the government should “urgently address the gap in UK child labour and performance regulation that is leaving child influencers without protection”.
They asked for new laws on working hours and conditions, a mandate for the protection of the child’s earnings, a right to erasure and to bring child labour arrangements under the oversight of local authorities.
However, Dr Francis Rees, the principal investigator for the Child Influencer Project, told Sky News that even after the implementation of the Online Safety Act, “there’s still a lot wanting”.
“Something has to be done to make brands more aware of their own duty of care towards kids in this arena,” she said.
Dr Rees added that achieving performances from children on social media “can involve extremely coercive and disruptive practices”.
“We simply have to do more to protect these children who have very little say or understanding of what is really happening. Most are left without a voice and without a choice.”
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The researcher pointed to one particular instance, in which children were advertising an underwear brand on social media.
She said: “The kids in the company’s own marketing material or their own media campaigns are either pulling up the band of the underwear underneath their clothing, or they’re holding the underwear up while they’re fully clothed.
“But whenever you look at any of the sponsored content produced by families with children – mum, dad, and child are in their underwear.”
Dr Rees said it is “night and day” in terms of how companies are behaving when they have responsibility for the material, versus “the lack of responsibility once they hand it over to parents with kids”.
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