Two women have been jailed for their parts in a global monkey torture network described by a judge as “depraved, sickening and wicked”.
Holly LeGresley, 37, and Adriana Orme, 56, were jailed for two years and 15 months respectively for uploading content of monkeys being tortured to online chat groups.
LeGresley admitted uploading 22 images and 132 videos of monkeys being tortured, as well as making a payment to a PayPal account to encourage cruelty.
Orme pleaded guilty to publishing an obscene article by uploading one image and 26 videos of monkey torture, and to having encouraged or assisted the commission of unnecessary suffering by making a £10 payment to a PayPal account.
Sentencing the pair at Worcester crown court on Wednesday, Judge James Burbidge KC said he had been left “almost in disbelief” by the evidence in the case. “Quite what led you two women of good character and, I am satisfied, some intelligence, to engage in such a forum is beyond comprehension by any right-thinking member of society,” he said.
The court heard the pair joined online chat groups that encouraged torture of monkeys by offenders based in Indonesia, who were sent money by group members to carry out their torture ideas.
The macaque monkeys were sometimes killed in the process.
LeGresley, from Kidderminster, went by the username The Immolator in groups on Telegram that created, crowdfunded and commissioned the videos, which included animals being beaten, doused in acid and put in blenders.
She was an admin of a group run by Michael Macartney from Virginia in the US, who called himself the Torture King, and once ran a poll for group members to vote on the method of torture they wanted to see inflicted upon a monkey in an upcoming video.
Macartney was recently sentenced to three years and four months in prison for conspiracy to create and distribute animal crushing videos.
At least 20 people globally were placed under investigation following a year-long investigation into the monkey torture ring by the BBC Eye team.
Sarah Kite, spokesperson for Action for Primates, which assisted the UK police with their investigation, stated: “Anyone involved in this type of behaviour must be held to account, and others need to know that such extreme cruelty and depravity will never be tolerated.
“We hope these sentences will deter others from becoming involved in these perverted and sadistic activities.”
