A man accused of carrying out castrations on other men and broadcasting the footage on his “eunuch maker” website has appeared in court.
Marius Gustavson, 45, along with eight others, is alleged to have performed extreme body modifications, including the removal of penises and testicles.
The procedures were filmed and uploaded to the eunuch maker website he ran, and subscribers would pay to watch, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard on Wednesday.
Gustavson, who is originally from Norway, is said to have been the ringleader in a wide-ranging conspiracy, involving up to 29 offences of extreme body modifications, the removal of body parts, the trade in body parts and the uploading of videos.
A total of nine men appeared in courts in central London and Wales on Wednesday over the alleged six-year plot, which is said to have brought in some £200,000 in income.
Gustavson, from Tottenham, north London, is charged with conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent between January 1 2016 and January 1 last year and five counts of causing GBH to five alleged victims.
The GBH charges include the removal of a man’s penis, the clamping of another’s testicles and freezing of a leg which required amputation.
He is further charged with acquiring or possessing criminal property, making an indecent image of a child and distributing an indecent image of a child.
The court heard Gustavson, who appeared in the dock in a wheelchair, has had his own leg, penis and nipple removed.
He appeared alongside Peter Wates, 65, from Croydon, in south London, who is charged with conspiracy to cause GBH with intent.
Wates is alleged to have been involved with nine of the 29 incidents while Romanian national Ion Ciucur, 28, who works in a hotel in Gretna Green, Scotland, is said to have been involved in two.
Ciucur, who appeared separately, faces the same count of conspiracy to cause GBH and all three men were remanded in custody ahead of their next appearance at the Old Bailey on April 19.
Three other men, named as David Carruthers, Janus Atkin and Ashley Williams on the indictment, appeared in Newport Magistrates’ Court, in South Wales, charged with being involved in the same conspiracy.
They will appear at the same court on the same date for a plea hearing.
Nathan Arnold, 47, from South Kensington, west London, Damien Byrnes, 35, from Tottenham, north London, and Jacob Crimi-Appleby, 22, from Epsom, Surrey, also appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday each charged with a single offence of causing GBH with intent.
Arnold is alleged to have removed Gustavson’s nipple, Byrnes is accused of removing his penis and Crimi-Appleby is accused of freezing his leg requiring amputation.
They will also appear at the Old Bailey with their co-defendants next month.
None of the have entered pleas to any of the charges.
All of the alleged victims are said to have been part of a society in which people willingly undergo extreme body modification.
The practice is linked to a subculture where men become “nullos”, short for genital nullification, by having their penis and testicles removed.
