Sick crimes of Eunuch Maker ‘admired by Brit surgeon' who paid men £25k to slice off genitals and sold body parts online
Marius Gustavson carried out extreme mutilations on troubled men - including to their genitals - with instruments designed for use on farm animals, often in rented hotel rooms and grotty London flats.
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Until yesterday, it was believed that Neil Hopper, the "bravest surgeon in Britain", had lost both his legs to sepsis and had even been on This Morning to talk about his battle.
But Hopper is now accused of causing these injuries himself, possibly inspired by videos he'd bought off cannibalistic Gustavsen - and he'd allegedly also encouraged the "human butcher" to chop up even more people.
Hopper - charged with fraud and with encouraging grievous bodily harm - was far from the only person potentially linked with Gustavson.
The Norwegian was the ringleader of a website on which 22,000 online subscribers tuned in to watch live-streamed videos of the brutal castrations.
He headed a subculture obsessed with severing genitals, trading body parts, and even eating them - and pocketing hundreds of thousands of pounds in the process.
Gustavson - who was sent to jail in May 2024 - cut off his own penis, removed his nipple, and had his leg frozen so that it had been amputated.
Yet despite his vile crimes, to many, now-jailed Marius Gustavson was a hero - or even a god.
'That website made it feel normal. I still thought I was in control,' said one victim, Michael.
'He then went to his wardrobe and brought out the clamps.
'That was the moment I knew I'd screwed up.'
Sickening crimes of the 'Eunuch Maker' who offered desperate men £25k to lop off their genitals with kitchen knives
Despite being sentenced to life in prison, Marius is unrepentant for his crimes, as revealed in a documentary investigation by Marcel Theroux earlier this year.
Isolated misfit
Born in 1977, Marius grew up in a rural village on the outskirts of Drammen, a city near the capital Oslo.
News of his gruesome crimes sent shockwaves throughout the small community.
Remembering him as a tender-hearted boy who struggled to fit in, nothing had hinted towards who he would turn into.
'He was definitely not one of the cool kids, and probably lacked some social skills,' remembers Camilla, one of his former classmates.
Growing up as an only child in this isolated village, Marius would stay closeted until his late teams.
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By high school he had started to come out of his shell, and afterwards went on to become a leading figure in the Drammen LGBT activist scene.
Soon after, however, he would have his first brush with the law - embezzling £5,000 worth of goods via the housing association he was leader of.
A couple years later, he did it again - this time embezzling £30,000, for which he served eight months in prison.
But despite what friends and family saw, Marius had long been set on the path that was to plunge him into the subculture of mutilation and castration.
What got me through the day was the next bit of fun I'd have - BDSM, bondage, sadomasochism
Michael
In the documentary, Theroux paid him an off-camera visit in Wandsworth Prison shortly after he pleaded guilty.
Marius reveals that aged 14 he became fascinated with a picture in a book of an Indian eunuch with their genitalia entirely removed.
'That's who I am,' he told Theroux.
Sick website
In 2012, Marius left Norway for London after the breakdown of his marriage, immersing himself in a subculture of people obsessed with becoming a 'nullo' - short for genital nullification.
Soon he created his website - The Eunuch Maker.com - an online forum on which users were able to create profiles that detailed what they wanted done to them, share pictures and videos, and buy the amputated organs.
Marius himself went by the username of Theo - the Greek word for god.
With a growing online reputation, he finally had his own penis removed in 2017.
Audio recordings played during his sentencing captured moments castrations had gone wrong, forcing him to call for ambulances while claiming there had been nothing more than an accident.
Images of Marius posing with a severed penis and putting it in his mouth were also shown.
Other acts of butchery were carried out with kitchen knives, with amputated genitalia kept in the fridge to be sold on.
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Michael, who has kept his surname anonymous, was introduced to Marius via a friend in the London kink scene in 2018.
'I was in a really bad place - I had a spiralling drug addiction, was depressed and suicidal,' he said.
'What got me through the day was the next bit of fun I'd have - BDSM, bondage, sadomasochism.'
Meeting him for the first time, he was shocked to see that Marius had intentionally removed his own leg by submerging it in a bucket of dry ice for eight hours.
'He said he'd thought it would be cool not to have one,' Michael told the documentary.
'I just thought f*** - this guy's actually serious about what he's doing.'
Making it clear he didn't want to receive any permanent damage, Michael and Marius enjoyed a night of bondage and torture.
Marius then revealed his website to Michael, encouraging him to join.
Farmyard clamps
Though originally against the idea of castration, his mind was slowly being warped by world Marius had opened the door to.
'That website made it feel normal,' he continued.
'You were told all the benefits, how you could control your hormones, your sex drive. You'd feel empowered, you'll feel better - no one said anything negative about it.
'He sent me a tariff of what videos would earn me in revenue: £5-7,000 for a testicle removal, £15-25,000 for losing your c**k.'
Temptation had won out, and Michael removed his limit of no permanent damage.
'I still thought I was in control. I was absolutely convinced.
'Then the next week, he said, 'Hey, we'll castrate you then'. And so we started planning.'
Michael went up to London and met Marius in his flat.
He got himself strapped down and took some drugs, at which point Marius fetched his instrument of choice - a pair of clamps normally used to castrate farm animals - all while the camera was pointed towards him.
'Never in my darkest dreams had I thought about those,' Michael continued.
'The pain was something else. But instead of calling for a stop to it, I just asked for more drugs.
After an hour with the blood supply cut off, both his testicles were dead.
Now back home, they had swelled up to the size of a melon.
What is gender dysphoria?
GENDER dysphoria is a psychological condition characterised by distress or discomfort that arises when there is a difference between a person's gender identity and their sex assigned from birth.
This condition can cause severe emotional and psychological distress, impacting an individual's well-being and quality of life.
Sometimes, these feelings can cause individuals to feel a sense of shame or self-hatred towards certain parts of their body - often the genitalia, as this is the part of the body most strongly associated with one's sex.
Gender dysphoria is also not always as simple as someone feeling as if they ought to have been born the opposite gender.
Sometimes it manifests itself as more general feeling of sexual and gender confusion, without any clear "solution."
Therapy and other psychological interventions are often used to help individuals for whom their gender dysphoria is impacting their quality of life.
Find out more at www.nhs.uk/conditions/gender-dysphoria/
'I remember lying in bed, in absolute agony, as the video was posted. Then the messages started coming: 'So cool', 'So hot'.
'A little eunuch badge appeared on my profile because I'd had a verified castration.
'The absolute celebration of it all - it was wonderful. It gave my profile clout.
'It was like fine, I'm committed now, so I agreed to have everything off.'
Perverted accomplices
Though the mastermind behind the website, Marius didn't always work alone.
One, Damien Byrnes, had threatened to go to the police after never receiving money he had been promised for removing his penis - but was blackmailed into backing down with a video that showed him mutilating Marius.
Another was a man called David Carruthers.
Having worked for the NHS, he convinced Michael that he would be able to safely remove his dead testicles - despite not actually holding any medical qualifications.
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Michael, Marius and David then rented an AirBnB in which they were to perform the operation.
But it was to lead to the Eunuch Maker's downfall.
Lying on a bed with forceps hanging off him, Michael finally realised the terrible mistake he had made.
'At that point I'd realised how much damage Gustavson had done to me,' Michael recalled.
'I'd realised he had been talking bulls*** so much up until that point. I started to see that he was just a butcher.
'I remember lying on the bed... thinking I don't care if I live or die, I just want to hurt him.
'Sure enough, he was out of there before I could stand up - all his camera equipment packed up and he had p**sed off.'
Despite his ordeal, Michael never received any of the money he had been promised.
His counsellor gave him an ultimatum - either Michael had to go to the police, or they would - so eventually he told them everything.
The subsequent police raid in 2021 uncovered hours of gruesome footage dating back seven years.
No choice
But while Marius did put pressure on his victims to undergo castration, many hold zero regrets about what they went through.
Unable to go through the NHS, Marius was the only way they could overcome their feelings of self-hatred.
One anonymous man who spoke to Theroux told of how for a long time he had struggled with his sexuality, harbouring a deep desire to rid himself of his testicals.
After joining the website and having a few meetings with Marius, he agreed to have a testicle removed.
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'He never did anything against my will, but he did put pressure on me,' he said.
'I remember him saying, 'If we don't do this, you'll be really disappointed. You were born to do this.''
He later met with Marius and an accomplice called Peter Wates to finish the job.
'I was delighted,' he continued.
'I have an enduring sense of gratitude to Marius for helping me reach a position that medically in the UK isn't possible.'
Edward, who was castrated in 2017, had originally been sympathetic towards Marius.
But this sympathy evaporated after he attended the sentencing.
'I shall always worry that Marius used a video of my procedure to persuade someone else to do something they didn't really want to do,' he said.
Marius himself had earned over £300,000 from his website.
He was charged with multiple counts of grievous bodily harm, possession of extreme pornography, and for making an indecent image of a child.
The court sentenced him to life in prison, to serve a minimum of 22 years.
The botched operations nearly led to the deaths of three men, with the judge describing his actions as little short of human butchery.
A further nine accomplices were also charged and sentenced.
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