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.

  • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
    7·
    7 months ago

    Without him the tortures wouldn’t have happened or at least be minimised.

    So he is directly responsible for the extra torture he himself knowingly facilitated.

    • ABCDE@lemmy.world
      16·
      7 months ago

      Without the people willing to torture and murder the animals it wouldn’t have happened.

          • magnusrufus@lemmy.world
            2·
            7 months ago

            No one is saying that’s not true. You are not making a point there. Connecting the people willing to do it to the people willing to view it increases demand and increases the occurrence.

            • ABCDE@lemmy.world
              14·
              7 months ago

              You don’t seem to be making a very different point here. Yes, it increases demand, but, as I said, those committing the violence are the ones who should be held more to account in my opinion, which is what start this conversation chain.

              • magnusrufus@lemmy.world
                2·
                7 months ago

                The start of the conversation seems to be someone saying that what he did was fucked up and he deserves more than 5 years for it. Then you wanted to make a distinction about his role in the torture for entertainment industry. If your point was that the people committing the torture directly should receive longer sentences than him then you did just about the worst job possible to convey that.

                • ABCDE@lemmy.world
                  14·
                  7 months ago

                  Yes, running chat groups is not as bad as actually torturing and killing monkeys.

                  I made it pretty clear yesterday.

                  • magnusrufus@lemmy.world
                    2·
                    7 months ago

                    No you didn’t. That doesn’t make your supposed point that the people that did the torture directly deserve more time in jail than him. You took a weird stand at a weird time and communicated it very poorly the whole way through.