Men admit conspiracy to remove genitals

Two men have admitted being part of an extreme body-modification plot involving pay-per-view website videos.

David Carruthers, 61, and Janus Atkin, 37, both from Newport in south Wales, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.

The Old Bailey heard the conspiracy involved removing and cutting genitals, castration and inserting needles into genitals, between 2016 and 2022.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC adjourned sentencing to 4 and 5 March.

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

The court heard the procedures were filmed and uploaded to a website run by 46-year-old Marius Gustavson, from Haringey in north London, who previously admitted a string of charges, including ones related to body modifications to his own person. He will be sentenced separately in March.

During a separate trial of three other men who were convicted over similar incidents, prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC said Gustavson called himself "the eunuch-maker" and had been involved in numerous extreme body-modification procedures, including the removal of other men's genitals.

The Old Bailey previously heard how extreme body-modification procedures are linked to a subculture where men become "nullos" - short for genital nullification - by having their penis and testicles removed.

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

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