Two men admit extreme castration body modifications plot

Two men have admitted being part of an extreme body modifications plot involving videos posted on a lucrative “eunuch maker” website.

David Carruthers, 61, and Janus Atkin, 37, from Newport in Gwent, pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm between 2016 and 2022.

It comes after a Gretna Green hotel worker admitted conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) involving castration.

Ion Ciucur, 29, a Romanian national, who lives in border village, appeared at London’s Old Bailey in December, where prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC told the court the offence related to two incidents in July 2019 involving “castration by clamping”.

The charge against Carruthers and Atkin alleged the conspiracy involved the removal and cutting of penises, testicles, castration by clamping, and the insertion of needles into genitals.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC adjourned sentencing to March 4 and 5 alongside other co-conspirators.

A third man, Stefan Scharf, 61, of no fixed address, was not asked to enter a plea to the same charge and his case was adjourned for a week.

Previously, the ringleader, Marius Gustavson, 46, of Haringey, north London, had admitted a string of charges at the Old Bailey.

The wide-ranging conspiracy is said to have involved up to 29 offences of extreme body modifications on 13 victims, the removal and trade of body parts.

The procedures were allegedly filmed and uploaded to the “eunuch maker” website Gustavson ran, and subscribers paid to watch.

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

They are said to have been part of a society in which people willingly undergo extreme body modification.

The practice is linked to a subculture where men become “nullos” – short for genital nullification – by having their penis and testicles removed.

Carruthers, Atkin and Scharf had appeared at the Old Bailey by video for the short hearing before Judge Lucraft.