Fraudster's broken marriage 'made him human butcher'

Marius Gustavson sought 'empowerment' in a subculture centred around male castration, a court heard

- TARA COBHAM

A fraudster whose marriage broke down spiralled into a gruesome, lucrative addiction to extreme body modifications that has now ended in him being jailed for life.

Marius Gustavson, who already had two previous fraud convictions in his native Norway, descended into a subculture centred around male castration, penis removal and other grisly procedures as he sought “empowerment” at the end of his 11year marriage in 2016.

Five years on, a court heard, the 46-year-old had become the mastermind of a “large scale” and “extremely dangerous” enterprise, involving the sharing of sick footage of amputations carried out in people’s homes as well as the trade of “trophy” body parts, some of which he stored in his freezer.

Gustavson’s “Eunuch Maker” pay-per-view website was operating on an unprecedented scale, with a staggering 22,841 registered users, and raking in almost £300,000 between 2017 and 2021 – the year he, the ringleader, and some of his acolytes were arrested, and the site shut down.

At the Old Bailey on Thursday, Gustavson, of Haringey, north London, who had previously admitted charges including conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years.

Sentencing Gustavson and six other men who had admitted their part in the conspiracy, HHJ Mark Lucraft KC said their “grisly and gruesome” actions amounted to “little more than human butchery” in some cases, and concluded that all were motivated by “a mix of sexual gratification as well as financial reward”.