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.

  • LiveLM@lemmy.zipEnglish
    53·
    9 months ago

    You see, sometimes you see some fucked up shit in a movie and you think “oh ok, this is just for the sake of story, there’s no way this has ever happened in real life”
    Then you read an article like this.

    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.

    How… How do you even come back from this? Is there any hope these people can get rehabilitated? I’m struggling to believe the answer is anything other than “NO.”

    • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
      18·
      9 months ago

      I don’t think there is.

      I’d like to understand the physical and mental variations between the relatively normal population at large and these cretins, just to see if it’s lead poisoning or what, but I’d pay tax money to let them eat nutrient loaf behind bars forever.

      • ouRKaoS
        51·
        9 months ago

        I say just do to them what they did to the animals.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
          5·
          9 months ago

          That’s problematic, you’ll have to find the same kind of people and pay them.

          Rather just terminate them.

          • ouRKaoS
            4·
            9 months ago

            Nah, you just put them up against each other, Thunderdome style, then execute the winner.

            • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
              1·
              9 months ago

              I don’t like the idea of doing things their way, even by their own hands.

              Just chair or gallows or something like that.

              I think the same about Azeri war criminals (basically their entire army) too, for example.

              • ouRKaoS
                1·
                9 months ago

                On one hand I understand that society needs to be better than those it punishes.

                On the other hand I’m wondering if we hit the hunger games or the running man first…

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      131·
      9 months ago

      How… How do you even come back from this?

      The sort of shit a 12 year old would come up with in a video game in an attempt to shock one’s friends made manifest IRL by grown ass adults.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
      7·
      9 months ago

      These people need watching for the rest of their lives to make sure they’re not a serial killer in training because they’re totally a serial killer in training.

      Serial killers always escalate this is what they do they start off being cruel to animals and then it goes from there. These people can be stopped before they get anywhere else.