Mutilator ‘eunuch maker’ sentenced to 22 years in prison

A self-described “eunuch maker” who mutilated paying customers and streamed videos online has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum sentence of 22 years.

Marius Gustavson admitted offences, including five counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

In a three-day sentencing at the Old Bailey he was described as “a lunatic”, “an arch-manipulator” and “a butcher”.

The Norwegian, 46, ran a lucrative extreme body modification business.

Warning: Contains graphic descriptions.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC said Gustavson had masterminded the “appalling and appalling”, “large-scale” and “extremely dangerous” enterprise.

“On one occasion, Gustavson cooked what appeared to be human testicles that were then plated to be eaten, and kept other body parts as ‘trophies,'” he said.

Judge Lucraft told the court he was “completely satisfied” that the motivation “was a mixture of sexual gratification and financial reward.”

Some of what occurred was “little short of human carnage,” he said.

The court heard how the defendant’s “Eunuchmaker” pay-per-view website advertised services including castration, penis removal and limb freezing.

The Old Bailey was also told how Gustavson got others to perform procedures on him, including removing a nipple and his penis and freezing his leg.

The website showed the defendant and his medically unqualified accomplices (six of whom were sentenced alongside him) carrying out a series of operations in London flats and hotel rooms with apparently willing volunteers. Some were as young as 16 years old.

Sometimes everything went very wrong. The court heard several recordings of 999 calls in which Gustavson calmly lied to the operator about how his victims had actually been hurt.

In his defense, Gustavson’s legal team claimed that he just wanted to “put a smile on people’s faces” by offering a service to those suffering, like him, from what was described as body integrity dysphoria (BID).

However, prosecuting barrister Caroline Carberry KC told the court: “We suggest that the diagnosis, if it exists, may explain why Mr Gustavson acted as he did to cause his own body to become mutilated and mutilated, but it does not explain why “what made mutilating others a lucrative business.”

Gustavson made almost £300,000 from his website, having amassed 22,841 visitors from around the world who paid to see the gruesome images, the court heard.

Subscribers who paid the £100 annual subscription would be entitled to VIP status, while victims were promised money from video revenues.

Court documents also showed Gustavson used his business to sell human tissue obtained during the procedures, with references to the “buy it now” button.

In the end, it was the bravery of one of Gustavson’s victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, that led to the website being shut down.

In 2020, the participant told Devon & Cornwall Police about the procedures that had been carried out on him and provided a USB stick containing 5,000 WhatsApp messages, 100 images and several videos.

He told police how he was “high” when Gustavson first cut him with a scalpel at his flat in Haringey, north London, and how he was tied to a bed and electrocuted.

In later proceedings, the man told police how his testicles were clamped and how Gustavson had used a hot iron designed by the victim to brand him with the initials EM, which means eunuch maker.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, the man described how Gustavson had “hypnotized” him, but now acknowledged that he had needed to see a psychiatrist “not a clandestine surgeon.”

“I realize that I have trusted the wrong person and that Gustavson is actually a lunatic.”

The thousands of messages given to police revealed how Gustavson was an “arch-manipulator of victims” who may have consented to the procedures but were themselves vulnerable, prosecutors said.

Having pleaded guilty to a series of charges including conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent, creating and distributing indecent images of a child and possession of extreme pornography, Gustavson did not need to testify at trial.

Journalists’ investigations into Gustavson’s background in Norway, and what his defense team stated in court, trace how the once respectable community figure descended into a spiral of criminality.

Originally from a small town southwest of Oslo, Gustavson was a postal worker and president of an LGBT charity, known for organizing Pride weekends and traditional “Russ” celebrations, a series of events and parties for high school students. Enjoy before your final exams.

But in 1999 he received a suspended prison sentence for fraud committed against a housing cooperative and in 2001 he was sentenced to eight months for Internet fraud.

Defense attorney Rashvinderjeet Panesar said Gustavson’s marriage in 2005 kept him “stable,” but it broke down in 2016, which is when he began to “change.”

Gustavson moved to the UK in 2012 and was living in London in 2017 when one of his co-accused, Damien Byrnes, had his penis removed.

Two years later he arranged to have part of her leg frozen and a nipple removed.

The procedures led to “feelings of empowerment and greater self-acceptance and feelings of satisfaction with your own body,” Panesar said.

“From there he started the Eunuchmaker website. He says he wanted to put a smile on other people’s faces, he wanted to help.

“He was trapped in a body where he wanted to make changes and realized there were more people who wanted to do the same.”

By the time of his arrest, his participation had become an “addiction” and he could no longer stop being present at the proceedings and recording videos, the lawyer said.