Gang of London men who had their own body parts cut off should have

Six men jailed for their roles in an extreme body modification ring which saw its leader cook human testicles to eat in a salad should have the lengths of their prison sentences reduced, the Court of Appeal has heard.

Marius Gustavson, Janus Atkin, David Carruthers, Ashley Williams, Damien Byrnes and Jacob Crimi-Appleby were jailed for their involvement in the operation, which carried out male castration, penis removal and other procedures.

Procedures were videoed and posted on Gustavson’s Eunuch Maker website, which netted him more than £300,000 between 2017 and 2021, the Old Bailey previously heard.

Gustavson, who led the group, had his penis cut off with a kitchen knife, and also froze his own leg so it needed to be amputated.

He admitted charges including conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm, and was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 22 years.

The five other men who are appealing against their sentences received jail terms of between three years and eight months, and 12 years for their part in the plot.

Barristers for the men argue that the sentencing guidelines used to determine how long they should be jailed for did not adequately take into account a scenario where people had given consent to be assaulted.

Julia Smart KC, for Gustavson, told the court in London: “That is our primary submission, that the sentencing guidelines are not designed to deal with this situation.”

However, prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC said on Thursday: “We really can’t lose sight of what is part of this unprecedented offending. It is a business described by one of the victims as a ‘cult’, or something that became a cult.

“It was busy and profitable in the niche and wholly unlawful process of extreme body modifications by way of unsafe backstreet surgeries performed by unqualified individuals.”

The court heard that it had been an “unprecedented” sentencing exercise, but that the guidelines had to be the starting point.

Previously the Old Bailey was told that Gustavson was linked to at least 29 procedures, and there was “clear evidence of cannibalism”.

After one of the procedures, he cooked severed testicles for lunch which he ate in a salad he had prepared for himself, she said.

The Old Bailey heard that extreme body modification is linked to a subculture where men become “nullos”, short for genital nullification, by having their penis and testicles removed.

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 own penis in a drawer of his home in Haringey, North London, four years after it had been amputated.

Atkin, 39, Carruthers, 62, 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 February 18 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.

Lord Justice William Davis, Mr Justice Griffiths and Judge Simon Drew KC will give their judgment in writing at a later date.

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