Michael Macartney, 50, confessed to the BBC his role in an extreme monkey torture network.

A ringleader in a global monkey torture network exposed by the BBC has been charged by US federal prosecutors.

Michael Macartney, 50, who went by the alias “Torture King”, was charged in Virginia with conspiracy to create and distribute animal-crushing videos.

Mr Macartney was one of three key distributors identified by the BBC Eye team during a year-long investigation into sadistic monkey torture groups.

Two women have also been charged in the UK following the investigation.

Warning: This article contains disturbing content

Mr Macartney, a former motorcycle gang member who previously spent time in prison, ran several chat groups for monkey torture enthusiasts from around the world on the encrypted messaging app Telegram.

  • ivanafterall
    44•3 months ago

    Alternately, you’re talking as if facilitating the whole network, including the torturing and killing, is somehow better than doing the actual torturing and killing.

      • @magnusrufus@lemmy.world
        27•3 months ago

        This type of comment always really bothers me. You are misrepresenting what is being compared. It’s not running chatrooms that is being judged. It’s facilitating and organizing the creation and distribution of animal torture content. If he was running chatrooms about my little pony no one would care. Framing it as running chat rooms is dishonest. Flying planes isn’t bad. Flying planes into buildings is. Say out loud the part you are trying to to minimize.

        • @ABCDE@lemmy.world
          -13•3 months ago

          How so? I didn’t say he ran some innocent or general chat groups, they were obviously involved in horrific shit. You are misrepresenting what I am saying.

          • @Honytawk@lemmy.zip
            7•3 months ago

            Without him the tortures wouldn’t have happened or at least be minimised.

            So he is directly responsible for the extra torture he himself knowingly facilitated.

                  • @magnusrufus@lemmy.world
                    2•3 months ago

                    No one is saying that’s not true. You are not making a point there. Connecting the people willing to do it to the people willing to view it increases demand and increases the occurrence.

        • @ABCDE@lemmy.world
          -38•3 months ago

          Why not? If you do the act yourself it’s worse than asking someone. Just like it would be for murder, the murderer gets longer behind bars, this is not surprising.

          • @cAUzapNEAGLb@lemmy.world
            22•3 months ago

            I disagree

            Willingly and knowingly promoting and distributing and organizing inhumane acts is as equally bad as commiting the core inhumane act directly. The goal and impact are equal.

            In my opinion there is no spectrum for comparison in inhumane acts. It simple is or isn’t.

            Hitler was just as inhumane as the ones he ordered to commit the acts.

            There is no better or worse, just is or isn’t.

            • @ABCDE@lemmy.world
              -14•3 months ago

              Those are fair points. Would, hypothetically, someone who is off the deep end be punished just as badly as someone who decided to follow those words? Or would it depend on their position of authority?

              • @cAUzapNEAGLb@lemmy.world
                11•3 months ago

                I’d leave that up to judge and jury with real details rather than hypotheticals, but I do think for justice to be accurate the state of mind, intentions, and many other factors should be considered.

                I do think a person who was mentally competent, understanding the act is inhumane would get a more harsh justice than a person who wasn’t.

                I think authority doesn’t have a direct role in deciding justice

                I don’t think following orders is an excuse, each of us has a duty to understand what we are doing and are responsible for the results. but if a person was incapable of understanding the results of their actions that is different from a person who was.

                A person who has authority likely is knowing and competent and intentional, and the wider impact of their actions will implicitly have harsher justice without directly considering their authority

                Most countries have protections for people disobeying illegal orders, and most countries make inhumane acts illegal so I feel like this well covered.

      • ivanafterall
        11•3 months ago

        Was he charged with “running a chat group?” Or “conspiracy to create and distribute animal-crushing videos?”

          • ivanafterall
            6•3 months ago

            A ringleader in a global monkey torture network exposed by the BBC has been charged by US federal prosecutors.

            Michael Macartney, 50, who went by the alias “Torture King”, was charged in Virginia with conspiracy to create and distribute animal-crushing videos.

            Mr Macartney was one of three key distributors identified by the BBC Eye team during a year-long investigation into sadistic monkey torture groups.

            Two women have also been charged in the UK following the investigation.

            Warning: This article contains disturbing content

            Mr Macartney, a former motorcycle gang member who previously spent time in prison, ran several chat groups for monkey torture enthusiasts from around the world on the encrypted messaging app Telegram.

            The groups were used to share ideas for custom-made torture videos, such as setting live monkeys on fire, injuring them with tools and even putting one in a blender.

            The ideas were then sent, along with payments, to video-makers in Indonesia who carried them out, sometimes killing the baby long-tailed macaque monkeys in the process.

            According to charging documents, Mr Macartney, who lives in the US state of Virginia, is accused by prosecutors of collecting funds from his chat groups and distributing videos depicting the “torture, murder, and sexually sadistic mutilation of animals, specifically juvenile and adult monkeys”.

            Mr Macartney has cooperated with investigators from the Department of Homeland Security and agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges. He will formally make a plea later this month and is facing up to five years in prison.

            Speaking to the BBC Eye investigations team last year, Mr Macartney confessed to his role in the torture network, describing himself as the “king of this demented world”.

            “I was the man,” he said. “You want to see monkeys get messed up? I could bring it to you.”

            Mr Macartney also described the moment he joined his first Telegram monkey group.

            “They had a poll set up,” he said. “Do you want a hammer involved? Do you want pliers involved? Do you want a screwdriver?”

            The resulting videos were “the most grotesque thing I have ever seen”, Mr Macartney said, and yet he went on to become a key player in the monkey torture groups.

            The BBC understands that more charges are expected to follow soon for other key players in the monkey torture network. At least 20 people were placed under investigation last year globally, following the BBC’s investigation.

            Three participants have already been charged in the US, including Mr Macartney. Two torturers were arrested and jailed in Indonesia, and three women have been arrested in the UK, two of whom have been charged.

            Holly LeGresley, 37, of Kidderminster and Adriana Orme, 55, of Upton-upon Severn were charged last month with publishing an obscene article and causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

            Ms LeGresley and Ms Orme were high-profile members of the online torture groups. Ms LeGresley, who went by the screen name “The Immolator”, was a moderator in a group run by Mr Macartney and was involved in commissioning some of the most extreme videos.

            In the US, two others have been charged with the same counts as Mr Macartney.

            David Christopher Noble, 48, a former US Air Force officer who was previously court-martialed and dismissed from the military, and Nicole Devilbiss, 35. They are both facing up to five years in prison.

      • @catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
        10•3 months ago

        Organizing the torture of hundreds of animals is better than torturing one animal yourself?

      • @BreakDecks@lemmy.mlEnglish
        3•3 months ago

        Somebody check this guy’s hard drive ASAP. Nobody makes this kind of argument unless they’re downloading some deranged shit from Telegram.