Two Worcestershire women jailed for involvement in global monkey torture network | UK News

Two women have been jailed for their involvement in a global monkey torture network that a judge described as “depraved, disgusting and evil”.

Holly LeGresley, 37, and Adriana Orme, 56, were sentenced to two years and 15 months in prison respectively for uploading content of tortured monkeys to online chat groups.

LeGresley admitted uploading 22 images and 132 videos of tortured monkeys and making a payment to a PayPal account to incite cruelty.

Orme pleaded guilty to publishing an obscene article by uploading a picture and 26 videos about monkey torture, and encouraging or assisting the commission of unnecessary suffering through a payment of £10 into a PayPal account.

Sentencing the pair at Worcester Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge James Burbidge KC said he was in “almost disbelief” at the evidence in the case. “What motivated you two women of good character and, I am satisfied, some intelligence to engage in such a forum is incomprehensible to any right-thinking member of society,” he said.

The court heard the pair had joined online chat groups that promoted the torture of monkeys by Indonesia-based criminals, who were sent money by the group members to carry out their torture ideas.

Some of the macaque monkeys were killed.

LeGresley, from Kidderminster, appeared under the username “The Immolator” in groups on Telegram that created, crowdfunded and commissioned the videos, which showed animals being beaten, doused with acid and placed in blenders.

She was an administrator of a group led by Michael Macartney of Virginia in the US, who called himself the “Torture King”, and once conducted a poll among group members to vote on the torture method they would like to see inflicted on a monkey in an upcoming video.

Macartney was recently sentenced to three years and four months in prison for conspiring to create and distribute animal cruelty videos.

At least 20 people have been investigated worldwide following a year-long investigation into the monkey torture ring by the BBC Eye team.

Sarah Kite, spokesperson for Action for Primates, which assisted British police in their investigation, said: “Anyone involved in this type of behavior must be held to account and others must know that such extreme cruelty and depravity can never happen be tolerated.”

“We hope that these sentences will deter others from engaging in these perverted and sadistic activities.”