British members of monkey torture group given jail time
Two women from Worcestershire have been given jail time for their part in a depraved ‘monkey torture’ group.
(c) J McArthur, BFF
Born Free has been deeply saddened by the development of a shocking and disturbing case of extreme animal cruelty. 37-year-old Holly Le Gresley, and Adrianna Orme who is 56, were implicated in the commissioning, viewing and distribution of sickening videos, in which infant macaques were depicted being ‘tortured to order’, following a wide investigation of around 20 people across Indonesia, the United States and the UK.
Le Gresley admitted uploading 22 images and 132 videos of monkeys being tortured. Orme was accused of sending one image and 26 videos featuring monkey torture into chat groups in 2022. The two women pleaded guilty to the charges earlier this year.
Le Gresley was sentenced to two years in prison, Orme to 15 months.
The group was coordinated in the United States and had reportedly shared some 3,000 images and videos involving monkey torture. Its leaders have already been sentenced to jail times in the US ranging from 3-5 years. The creators of the videos in Indonesia have also been convicted and given custodial sentences.
The Judge who presided over the sentencing hearing reportedly described the British women’s actions as ‘beyond comprehension for most of society’. Chief Inspector Kevin Lacks-Kelly, head of the UK’s National Wildlife Crime Unit, was quoted as saying that the case was the worst he had dealt with during his 22 years as an officer.
Responding to the news, Born Free’s Head of Policy, Dr Mark Jones, said: “As a vet, to me the idea that people would torture animals is horrific. That they would do so in a premedicated and coordinated way in order to generate videos to distribute online for their own and others’ gratification, and to profit financially, makes it all the more sickening. Anyone who perpetrates, commissions, or deliberately distributes such material must clearly be deeply depraved. Hopefully the custodial sentences will make others think twice but, given the deeply disturbing circumstances, the prison sentences could and arguably should have been longer.”
Detective Chief Inspector Ben Arrowsmith, who led the investigation for West Mercia Police, was quoted as saying: “This is the first time in British legal history that charges relating to animal cruelty have been brought under the Serious Crime Act 2007 for cruelty that took place abroad, but where the offenders are in the UK, making this a landmark case.”
The production and distribution of online animal cruelty content has grown considerably in recent years. It involves animals of different species, although infant macaques, puppies and kittens are commonly exploited for the purpose.
Animal cruelty content is being distributed not just on the dark web, but also on commonly used social media networks where it can be easily accessed, including by children. Such content often features infant macaques, who are typically removed from their parents at a very young age, sometimes just days old, and sold into the pet trade. Their parents and family members are often killed in order to obtain the infants who are then sold into the pet trade.
Investigations by the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition, of which Born Free is a member and which brings organizations together to understand, address and end the proliferation of animal cruelty content available on social media platforms, identified 1,226 examples of content depicting pet macaques on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, between September 2021 and March 2023, 60% of which involved direct physical abuse of the animals, with some suffering life changing injuries and even death. Coalition member Action for Primates were heavily involved in the investigations that led to the recent British convictions, and were highly praised by the judge.
Dr Jones continued: “This was a horrific, but by no means isolated case. Thousands of macaques and other primates, alongside many other species, are cruelly captured from the wild or bred in captivity, shipped around the world, and kept as pets in people’s homes, typically in conditions to which they are wholly unsuitable. What we’ve learned in recent years is that some of these animals suffer serious abuse and even torture, and that this is increasingly being recorded and disseminated on social media, often for financial gain. Sadly, I think we’re only beginning to scratch the surface of this deeply disturbing issue.”
The online content varies from the seemingly ‘innocent’ depiction of animals in clothes or performing unnatural tricks, to violent and graphic torture. In some cases, animals are featured as ‘victims’ in fake staged ‘rescues’ to generate sympathy and financial donations.
The links between animal cruelty and abusive behaviour towards people are also well established, so it may well be that those who engage with animal cruelty content are also more likely to inflict acts of violence and cruelty on other people
While the generation and distribution of animal cruelty content can and does take place all over the world, monkey torture seems to be primarily centred in Asia.
The issue was exposed in a BBC World Service documentary entitled ‘The Monkey haters’, which was released in June 2023 following a two-year investigation into monkeys being tortured to order in Indonesia for the gratification of people in online groups operating across the US and Europe.
In another case, Peter Stanley from Liverpool was sentenced in September to 20 months in prison for distributing videos of baby monkeys being tortured in a disturbing private Facebook group.
Dr Jones concluded: “At Born Free, we’ve been calling on governments to introduce and enforce legislation to protect primates and other wild animals from the pet trade and from online abuse. Here in the UK, we were heavily involved in the successful campaign to ensure animal cruelty content was included in the list of priority offences covered by the Online Safety Act, which passed into law last October. We’re now working with our partners in the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition to ensure that social media platforms are obliged to identify and remove all such content, and that those producing and distributing it are reported to the authorities.”
In addition to governments and social media platforms, the wider public has a hugely important role to play. Any interaction with online cruelty content boosts its exposure, increases profits for abusers and expands the market for cruelty. Born Free advises people not to engage with such content, but rather to report it to the online platforms.
People can also send information on animal cruelty content to the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition at www.smaccoalition.com/report-it-hub.