Two men have admitted removing body parts of a man who is accused carrying out castrations and broadcasting the footage on his “eunuch maker” website.
Nurse Nathan Arnold, 48, from South Kensington, west London, admitted the partial removal of Marius Gustavson’s nipple in the summer of 2019 and stealing medicine from the hospital where he worked in 2016.
Damien Byrnes, 35, from Tottenham, north London, admitted removing Gustavson’s penis on February 18 2017.
Arnold and Byrnes pleaded guilty during a hearing at the Old Bailey on Wednesday to causing grievous bodily harm with intent to 45-year-old Gustavson.
Arnold also pleaded guilty to the theft of local anaesthetic lidocaine from the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and accepted a further offence of possessing extreme pornography.
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.
The Metropolitan Police have said the charges relate to 13 alleged victims.
His alleged “right-hand man”, Peter Wates, 66, from Croydon in south London, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm between January 1 2016 and January 1 2022.
Wates was alleged to have been involved with nine of the 29 incidents.
Prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC told the court Wates was a “key player who had a role as a surgeon in a very large number of procedures”.
The three defendants appeared in court alongside Gustavson and five other defendants who were not asked to enter pleas.
The defendants are alleged to have performed extreme body modifications, including the removal of penises and testicles.
The procedures were allegedly filmed and uploaded to the “eunuch maker” website Gustavson ran, and subscribers would pay to watch.
The defendants were arrested after police raids in London, Scotland and South Wales.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC set a further hearing for May 31 and a plea and case management hearing on June 30.
He said the earliest available date to start an eight-week trial at the Old Bailey is March 4 next year.
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 grievous bodily harm 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.
Romanian national Ion Ciucur, 29, who worked in a hotel in Gretna Green, Scotland, is said to have been involved in two incidents in the alleged conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.
Other alleged conspirators are David Carruthers, 60, Janus Atkin, 38, and Ashley Williams, 31 – who are all from Newport in Gwent, South Wales.
Jacob Crimi-Appleby, 22, from Epsom, Surrey, who is accused of freezing Gustavson’s leg requiring amputation, is charged with causing GBH with intent.
The defendants 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.
The Metropolitan Police previously said in a statement: “We encourage anyone who has had similar experiences to seek medical advice from their local sexual health clinic or GP.”
Gustavson, Wates and Ciucur attended court by video-link from Wandsworth Prison.
The other six defendants, who are on bail, sat side by side in the dock at the Old Bailey.
