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.

  • @[email protected]English
    3•8 months ago

    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.

    • @radicalautonomy
      2•8 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]English
        2•8 months ago

        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 :)