The network was closed down last year after it was exposed by British broadcaster BBC. The American accused is 50-year-old Michael Macartney, a former member of a motorcycle gang, who used the pseudonym Torture King on the chat service Telegram. On Telegram he managed chat groups containing people from all over the world who enjoyed torturing monkeys.
In the blender
Ideas were exchanged in the groups for making videos to order in which the monkeys were horribly abused. According to the BBC, this included setting the animals on fire, torturing them with various tools and putting a monkey in a blender.
The setups for the videos were then sent, accompanied by a payment, to people in Indonesia who made the videos.
Macartney is suspected of raising the money and distributing the videos. According to justice in the US, this involved ‘torture, murder and the sexually sadistic mutilation of animals, especially young and adult monkeys’.
More suspects
Later this month, Macartney will plead guilty in court, the BBC writes. He faces a prison sentence of up to five years. In the documentary that the BBC made about the torture practices, he had actually already made a confession last year. “Do you want to see monkeys helped into destruction? I can arrange that for you,” he said, among other things.
Two other suspects, a man and a woman, have been charged in the US in the same case. In the United Kingdom it concerns two women. More people involved may come to trial.
Watch a broadcast that the BBC dedicated to the network last year below. Beware: the video contains disturbing images.
