Scots hotel worker and website mastermind jailed for 'eunuch making' scheme

The mastermind of a lucrative extreme body modifications enterprise who cooked human testicles to eat in a salad has been jailed for life.

Marius Gustavson and his acolytes carried out male castration, penis removal and other “grisly” procedures on an unprecedented scale, the Old Bailey heard.

Procedures were videoed and posted on Gustavson’s Eunuch Maker website which netted him more than £300,000 between 2017 and 2021.

On one occasion when Gustavson cooked “what appeared to be human testicles which are then plated to be eaten” and kept other body parts as “trophies”, Judge Mark Lucraft KC said.

Gustavson, 46, of Haringey, north London, admitted charges including conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.

On Thursday Judge Lucraft sentenced him to life with a minimum term of 22 years.

He said Gustavson had been the mastermind of the “gruesome and grisly”, “large scale” and “extremely dangerous” enterprise.

Six other men received jail terms of between four and a half years and 12 years for their part in the plot.

Judge Lucraft said: “I am entirely satisfied that the motivation of all those involved were a mix of sexual gratification as well as financial reward.”

Some of what happened was “little short of human butchery”, he said.

Extreme body modification is linked to a subculture where men become “nullos”, short for genital nullification, by having their penis and testicles removed.

Previously, prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC said Gustavson was linked to at least 29 procedures.

After one of them, Gustavson cooked severed testicles for lunch which he ate in a salad he had prepared for himself, she said.

He had taken various pictures from “raw ingredients to an artfully arranged salad platter”, Ms Carberry told the court.

She added: “There is also, we say, clear evidence of cannibalism.”

The court heard Gustavson, who had two previous fraud convictions in Norway, offered to sell the severed penis of one of his victims for hundreds of pounds.

According to court documents, body parts were put up for auction online with a “buy it now” button.

The other defendants had admitted their part in the conspiracy relating to 13 victims, the youngest of whom was 16 years old.

Ms Carberry said the defendants used a wide variety of tools such as clamps used for animal castration.

Some 22,000 subscribers paid to access videos on the Eunuch Maker website, with varying levels of membership from “free” to “VIP” which cost £100.

Gustavson was arrested after he used a red hot iron to brand a man’s calf with the letters EM – for eunach maker.

In a victim impact statement, the man who complained to police, described Gustavson as a “lunatic” who had put together a “slick, professional website”.

The police investigation led to the arrest of 10 men in London, Scotland and South Wales.

During raids, officers found Gustavson’s penis in a drawer in his home four years after it had been amputated.