Ringleader of extreme body modification cult played ‘staged dice game’ with victim before cutting off his penis with a vegetable knife in sick castration uploaded to his pay-per-view Eunuch Maker website – as ‘arch-manipulator’ faces jail

A Norwegian man who was the ringleader of an extreme body modification cult played a ‘staged dice game’ with a victim before cutting off his penis with a vegetable knife.

Marius Gustavson, 46, faces years in jail along with six other members of his cult for carrying out castrations and uploading the footage online to a paying audience.

The Old Bailey heard today how the self-titled ‘The Eunuch Maker’ had ‘masterminded’ a website where subscribers would pay to watch penises, testicles and legs being removed in operations filmed by himself.

In one of his many sick castrations, Gustavson removed his penis using the same red vegetable knife he used to remove his own penis, leading to his victim having a ‘catastrophic and uncontrolled haemorrhaging.’

Gustavson uploaded this video and many others onto his website, where he made nearly £300,000 during the four year plot from the 22,841 subscribers across the globe.

Prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC told the Old Bailey that Gustavson was involved in a minimum of 30 procedures and had ‘manipulated vulnerable victims’ to take part in the practice. 

He also recruited ‘like-minded individuals’ to carry out the procedures in his flat in Haringey, north London, or at rented apartments and hotels.

The operations were filmed and uploaded to the website eunuchmaker.com – which ‘operated in plain sight’ and had basic, premium and VIP membership options for up to £100 a year.

The videos included the electrocution of a 16-year-old’s private parts, which Gustavson filmed and uploaded, the court heard today.

In another upload, Gustavson encouraged a Swedish man to cut off a testicle and then his penis, in two FaceTime recordings filmed three days apart.

In the first video, Gustavson can be heard saying ‘you know what to do’ and encouraging the man as he hesitated with the knife, before removing the testicle.

In the second, the Norwegian is sipping on a drink as he tells the victim to cut off the penis and is heard laughing as he said ‘just cut it off’. He then tells him to ‘put the penis in a freezer’ and go to hospital to sort out the bleeding.

Ms Carberry said: ‘Gustavson set up a website called eunuchmaker.com on which he advertised extreme body modification services such as male castration and penis removal.

‘And it is an incredible feature of this case that that website operated in plain sight, not on the dark web, but accessible to anyone who stumbled upon it and had the inclination and the mans to view the gruesome footage.

‘This footage, which is extremely explicit, was uploaded to eunuchmaker.com. Users could pay to subscribe or buy individual videos.

‘There is evidence that the victims were promised a sum of money from the video revenue.’

In November 2020, a victim came forward and told the police what had happened to him sparking the investigation. He is the only victim who has assisted the police with their enquiries. 

When police searched Gustavson’s property, they found a ‘wide variety’ of tools including clamps commonly used to castrate livestock, forceps, electrodes, catheters scalpels.

Gustavson faces sentence alongside six other members of the body modification cult ‘right hand man’ Peter Wates, 67, Romanian Ion Ciucur, 30, and 61-year-old German Stefan Scharf.

He is now using a wheelchair after his leg was frozen and then amputated. He has also had his penis and nipple removed. 

He received £18,500 in disability benefit after forcing the NHS to amputate his left leg by putting it in dry ice for two hours.

Also facing jail are former surgical assistant David Carruthers, 61, his boyfriend Ashley Williams, 32, and Janus Atkin, 39, all from South Wales.

The Recorder of London, Judge Mark Lucraft, KC, will sentence the seven men tomorrow.

Carruthers was involved in six procedures including four testicle removals.

He worked for Ceredigion and Mid Wales NHS trust from 1991 to 2002 as a ‘domestic assistant’ but has no medical qualifications.

Atkin had studied veterinary medicine and was involved in eight procedures including a penis removal.

Wates is a retired chemist and a former member of the Royal Society of Chemists and was involved in nine procedures.

He was arrested at his home in Purley, Surrey on 2 February 2022.

In February 2021 he bought five scalpels online and in June 2017 he bought a suturing kit online.

Ciucur was involved in two procedures including a testicle clamping.

Williams was involved in assisting his husband, Carruthers, to remove their friend Atkin’s testicle.

The couple both worked at the passport office in Wales.

Gustavson appeared in court via video-link from HMP Wandsworth as the Old Bailey cannot accommodate wheelchair using defendants. He sat making notes during the hearing.

He admits conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm, five counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, possessing criminal property, namely money and making and distributing two indecent videos of a child between January 2017 and January 2020.

He also admits possessing extreme pornographic images, and three counts of possessing pseudo-photographs of a child.

Wates admits conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.

Ciucur, who works in a hotel in Gretna Green, Scotland, admits conspiracy to cause GBH with intent in relation to two modifications.

Williams admits causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Atkin at his home in Newport, south Wales, on 7 November 2017.

Carruthers and Atkin admit conspiracy to commit bodily harm.

Scharf admits causing grievous bodily harm with intent by taking part in a single procedure by removing a testicle in an apartment in Camden in July 2019.

Former nurse Nathaniel Arnold, 49, Jacob Crimi-Appleby, 23, and male prostitute Damien Byrnes, 36, all admitted removing body parts from Gustavson and were jailed last year.

Crimi-Appleby, who had a sexual relationship with Gustavson after meeting him aged 17, froze his leg causing it to require amputation, Byrnes removed his penis with a vegetable knife while Arnold partially removed his nipple with a scalpel.

Byrnes was earlier jailed for five years, Crimi-Appleby for three years and eight months while Arnold was given a two year suspended sentence.

The hearing continues.