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.
What. The. Fuck.
Monkey. Torture. Enthusiast.
Never thought I’d see those words together in a row.
There is a lengthy BBC article that went into the discovery of this network. Thank journalists. Without journalists this network would likely be alive, well, and thriving. Journalists infiltrated the group and started passing info to the authorities.
When people lament the loss of journalism, catching people like this is what we are losing.
investigative journalism is the UV light to the problems in society.
Which is why those in power have done everything they can to buy up these journalism outlets and destroy their investigative teams.
You’ve just criticised someone for “sticking their nose in” and now your defending investigative journalism?
You really live up to your username.
You are a special kind of stupid, arent you?
Explain the difference using pictures then please…
It sounds unreal. Like, it looks like it’s the name of a punk band, not an accurate description of a human that exists.
This makes me root for Planet of the Apes
This psycho is only facing 5 years in prison?! Yikes
Depending on the monkey or ape species I feel like this is on par with torturing babies or young toddlers. They’re completely helpless and as intelligent and self-aware.
…what part of Virginia
Well I am shocked that a person like this would be A Trump supporter and love the Confederacy. /s
He should be up for now than 5 years. This is completely fucked.
That CAT shirt isn’t a good look either. That company is full of sadistic fuckers. They’ll probably promote him for this.
Don’t worry. Trump supporters will just hand wave this as some sort of false flag.
With motherfuckin Ice Cube on a T-shirt that’s hanging on the wall, too. Says “Boyz N Da Hood” and everything.
What song of his do you think this POS likes?
LMAO, they’ll call him a legitimate businessman running a legitimate business, why is the government getting in the way of a stand-up American’s monkey-torture distribution network!
Whaaaaat? Confederate and Trump flags? I’m so surprised!
Ironically, his 5 year sentence would be longer than the Confederacy lasted.
He didn’t do the actual stuff though, he got people in Indonesia to do it.
Imagine defending the fucking torture king
Imagine imagining that I am.
The comment you originally responded to didn’t say that he did the torturing himself, so your unsolicited response that “he didn’t do the actual stuff though” absolutely comes across as an attempt to minimize the things that he is accused of doing according to the article.
That sounds like a defense to me. You think we should give him slack because of his distance to the violence he was orchestrating.
No, I do not think that.
Wow! When you put it that way he’s basically a political prisoner. BRB going to set up a gofundme for this sweet misunderstood angel.
Conspiracy then. Just as bad.
How so?
You’re overdoing it now.
Overdoing what? If you don’t want to engage in discussion you don’t have to be here.
Congratulations, you’ve figured out what a distributor does.
Okay? People in the comments are talking as if he’s the one doing the torturing and killing.
Read the book Whipping Star. It isn’t very long. If you get to the end and can’t see the corollary, I’d be happy to point them out to you.
I have too many books and papers on the go at the moment, feel free to summarise it.
Alternately, you’re talking as if facilitating the whole network, including the torturing and killing, is somehow better than doing the actual torturing and killing.
Yes, running chat groups is not as bad as actually torturing and killing monkeys.
Somebody check this guy’s hard drive ASAP. Nobody makes this kind of argument unless they’re downloading some deranged shit from Telegram.
You’d be surprisingly bored.
This type of comment always really bothers me. You are misrepresenting what is being compared. It’s not running chatrooms that is being judged. It’s facilitating and organizing the creation and distribution of animal torture content. If he was running chatrooms about my little pony no one would care. Framing it as running chat rooms is dishonest. Flying planes isn’t bad. Flying planes into buildings is. Say out loud the part you are trying to to minimize.
How so? I didn’t say he ran some innocent or general chat groups, they were obviously involved in horrific shit. You are misrepresenting what I am saying.
Was he charged with “running a chat group?” Or “conspiracy to create and distribute animal-crushing videos?”
What did he do?
Willing to say the same thing about child porn and sex trafficking?
Why not? If you do the act yourself it’s worse than asking someone. Just like it would be for murder, the murderer gets longer behind bars, this is not surprising.
Organizing the torture of hundreds of animals is better than torturing one animal yourself?
Good strawman.
Boy are you wrong
Why?
Hitler probably didn’t kill many/any of the Jews himself either…
He even was nice to that one little Jewish girl. So obviously, he deserves some slack.
Yes, someone made the same point already.
I think you are projecting. I don’t see that anywhere. Just people saying that the sentence should be longer. Which it should be. It should be considered as something like federal trafficking with a minimum of 5 years and up to 40 years. I bet they would have sentenced him with more than 5 years if it was CP he was trafficking.
Why would you think that? I’m not interested if you think I’m discussing in bad faith.
Yeah, I’m the one arguing in bad faith. This is exactly why I think you are projecting.
I didn’t say that. No interest whatsoever in your pisspoor understanding and attempt at using words you do not know how to use.
Meanwhile, Charles Manson is in prison, even though he never killed anyone with his own hands.
He died like 7 years ago.
In that case he received the same sentence as Atkins, death, commuted to life. Good example, although he was more directly involved due to proximity.
Which adds a while other level of hypocrisy. Why can’t he have good ol’ Americans do the job? Are they not good enough for him?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50137450
This was the example which came to mind, where the original person was sentenced with the strongest punishment, then the subsequent people each received subsequently lighter ones.
However this disagrees with my stance, and gave the person who requested a hitman a longer sentence than the two who committed the murder (24, v 16 and 20 years respectively).
I upvoted you, by the way, in case you thought it was me who downvoted.
I think I last heard the words “monkey torture” in the ‘Barry Lutz Show’ sketch by The State in 1994. Can’t find a copy of it on YouTube, ebaumsworld has a copy but it didn’t want to load for me and the site itself is ad heavy - direct link to the .flv should work but might not play natively in browser. To be clear, the video link is a comedy bit about psychologically torturing monkeys and doesn’t show or inflict any harm to any.
I don’t have anything meaningful to add to the discussion about the IRL monkey abuse so I’m hoping to inject a little bit of levity to an otherwise terrible subject.
I want to see them make little edible luggage, because that does sound good. I have the DVD box set, and a friend of mine whom I used to date and I bonded over The State when we met in 2014. Terrific stuff.
Pretty wild how most of that troupe had successful careers in entertainment even outside of stuff they did together. I’m glad at least a couple other people remember the show fondly :)
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted, I thought of the same thing.
What the fuck
Yeah, what the fuck
Yeah, seriously. Reading that kinda fucked up my evening. Fuck that guy.
Put these people to death themselves. No redeeming value for net of them.
Definitely disagree. It’s disgusting, but something being disgusting to me doesn’t make it wrong. And honestly, I eat pork, so I don’t think I really have a leg to stand on with criticizing the torture of intelligent animals
Out of curiosity, have you personally looked into how pigs (especially factory farmed) are raised and slaughtered?
Yeah, its not very humane.
Sadly not. If you’re interested in cutting back support for these industries, I’d be happy to throw you some recommendations for alternatives. Just let me know what country you’re in and what you like to eat!
I’d be more interested in resources about the ethics/intelligence of pigs. Because, tbh my whole belief(that might be cope) is just that I’ve not really been convinced these animals are something who’s life I value. And I can’t complain about whether an animals being mistreated if I am fine with thousands of the same animal being slaughtered for people’s pleasure, whether or not the time leading up to slaughter is humane.
Here’s a good reference on the sentience of animals: https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/our-campaigns/sentience/#:~:text=Animal sentience means that animals,always know what they are.
Why do you value the lives of other humans? If it’s intelligence that’s the metric, then why value babies or mentally handicapped people? If it’s their ability to feel sadness, pain and fear, then all land animals we eat have shown those same characteristics.
I’m against cruel and unusual punishments… but in this case, subjecting them to their own torture devices seems appropriate.
…In public
This is truly sadistic behaviour. Considering how close they are to humans as well…
… monkey torture enthusiasts …
wat
I’ve heard of KittenCrush, but not MonkeyCrush… I think the KittenCrush folks are also in prison.
:( oh noes
If this was an onion headline I’d think it’s maybe a little too outlandish to be believable.
Dude literally just crushed monkeys for… Profit? What in the nine hells would compel a person to do that. To pay to see it??
…animal-crushing videos…
Somehow it gets worse with every sentence
“torture, murder, and sexually sadistic mutilation of animals” it gets worse
Pretty sure anyone claiming to be that just likes torture, and monkeys are the closest they can get to humans without facing way more prison time.
Pretty much this. They’re about two steps removed from actual serial killer tendencies - I’m betting more than a few of these guys wound up needing a fresh pair of underwear after making a video, if you get me.
Who are the individuals paying to commission this torture?
Definitely needs to be some investigation into the ‘consumer’ here.
Death penalty would be appropriate here. I’m not a believer in general but what else can you do with this human trash?
Throw him to the monkeys.
No thank you. I’ve had enough internet for today.
Yup. I’m going to read hunter s thompsons book on hells angels and actually feel relaxed from that compared to what I just read
