Three Newport men appear in court accused of castrations website conspiracy
Three men from Wales have appeared in court for their part in a conspiracy to carry out castrations and broadcasting the footage.
The procedures were filmed and uploaded to a website where subscribers would pay to watch the procedure. 29 offences of extreme body modifications, the removal of body parts, the trade in body parts and the uploading of videos is alleged to have happened.
David Carruthers, 60, Janus Atkin, 37, and Ashley Williams, 31 - who are all from Newport, in Gwent, South Wales, appeared at Newport Magistrates' Court, charged with being involved with the conspiracy.
Marius Gustavson, 45, originally from Norway, but now living in Tottenham in north London is alleged to be the ringleader of the group. He has appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court.
The Metropolitan Police said the charges relate to 13 alleged victims.
Raids were carried out in London, Scotland and South Wales on Wednesday morning and a total of nine men later appeared in courts in central London and Wales over the alleged six-year plot, which is said to have brought in some £200,000 in income.
Gustavson, is charged with conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent between January 1 2016 and January 1 last year and five counts of causing GBH to five alleged victims.
He is also charged with acquiring or possessing criminal property, making an indecent image of a child and distributing an indecent image of a child.
Gustavson appeared alongside Peter Wates, 65, from Croydon, in south London, who is charged with conspiracy to cause GBH with intent.
Wates is alleged to have been involved with nine of the 29 incidents while Romanian national Ion Ciucur, 28, who works in a hotel in Gretna Green, Scotland, is said to have been involved in two.
Ciucur, who appeared separately, faces the same count of conspiracy to cause GBH and all three men were remanded in custody ahead of their next appearance at the Old Bailey on April 19.
The three men from Wales- David Carruthers, 60, Janus Atkin, 37, and Ashley Williams, 31 - were granted bail and will appear at the Old Bailey on the same date for a plea hearing.
Nathan Arnold, 47, from South Kensington, west London, Damien Byrnes, 35, from Tottenham, north London, and Jacob Crimi-Appleby, 22, from Epsom, Surrey, also appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday each charged with a single offence of causing GBH with intent.
They were each granted bail and will also appear at the Old Bailey with their co-defendants next month. None of them have entered pleas to any of the charges.
The group is 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 intimate parts removed.
The Met said in a statement: "We encourage anyone who has had similar experiences to seek medical advice from their local sexual health clinic or GP."
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