‘Eunuch maker’ whose extreme body modification website made £300,000 had freezer filled with body parts

WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT Marius Gustavson’s ‘Eunuch maker’ website amassed 22,000 registered users before it was closed down

Marius Gustavson’s ‘Eunuch maker’ website had more 22,000 registered users (Supplied)

A man who ran a “lucrative” extreme body modification website sharing gruesome footage of castrations and amputations had a freezer filled with ‘trophy’ body parts, a court heard.

Marius Gustavson’s ‘Eunuch maker’ pay-per-view website shared footage of people undergoing “dangerous, unnecessary and life-changing surgeries” carried out in people’s homes – including male genitals being removed.

The Old Bailey heard the extreme body modification enterprise operated on an unprecedented scale with a “staggering” 22,841 registered users and raked in almost £300,000 before it was shut down.

Ringleader Gustavson was involved in up to 30 procedures between 2017 and 2021 before he was arrested.

The 46-year-old, of Haringey, north London, has previously admitted charges including conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.

He appeared for sentence alongside six other men who had all admitted their part in the lucrative scheme.

Among them were Peter Wates, a retired former member of the Royal Society of Chemists, and Janus Atkin who had been completing a veterinary course, the court heard.

The charges relate to 13 victims who are being safeguarded by specialist detectives.

Caroline Carberry KC, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey the men were involved in a “lucrative business in the dangerous, unnecessary and life-changing surgeries carried out by non-medically qualified individuals – the nature and scale of which is without precedent.”

“All of these individuals were active in the extreme body modification or mutilation scene and the consensual or mutilation of male genitalia,” she added.

Procedures were filmed with “increasing professionalism” and made available on the website set up by Gustavson, which also advertised services including male castration and penis removal.

“It is a remarkable feature of this case that the website was operating in plain sight – not on the dark web – accessible to anyone who stumbled upon it and had the inclination and means to pay to view the gruesome footage,” she said.

Shocking images shown to the court revealed Gustavson’s freezer filled with body parts stored in plastic bags and takeaway containers.

“It wasn’t unusual for the excised genitalia to be kept by some of these defendants,” she told the hearing.

Police officers also discovered Gustavson’s own penis in a drawer at his home following his arrest in 2021 – almost four years after it had been amputated.

“Gustavson wasn’t the only defendant to keep trophies from his surgeries,” she added.

Ms Carberry KC said the group used a “wide variety of tools” for their procedures including clamps used for “animal castration”.

She told the court that during a facetime call with a man in Sweden, Gustavson told him to “maim himself” by cutting off his testicles with a knife.

Gustavson told him: “You know what to do come on, just push it.”

Three days later, Gustavson encouraged him to cut off his penis, the court was told.

Ten men were arrested after police raids in London, Scotland and South Wales.

Gustavson pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm, five counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, one count of making an indecent photograph of a child, one count of distributing an indecent photograph of a child and possession of criminal property contrary to Section 329(1) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Ion Ciucur, 30, of Gretna, Scotland; Wates, 66, of Purley, Surrey; Stefan Scharf, 61, of no fixed address; David Carruthers 61; Atkin, 38; and Ashley Williams, 32, all of Newport, Gwent, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm.

The sentencing hearing will conclude on Friday.