Donald Padgett

A Norwegian man who called himself “The Eunuch Maker” pleaded guilty to multiple charges relating to the underground castration and extreme genital modification surgeries he performed on numerous willing participants over six years, according to the Daily Mail and other media outlets.

Maruis Gustavson, 46, appeared in the Old Bailey Central Criminal Courthouse in London on December 19 last year where he admitted his role as the ringleader of a castration cartel that made hundreds of thousands of dollars by posting videos and live-streaming the underground surgical procedures to a paying audience on the dark web.

Gustavson appeared in court via a video link from the HMP Belmarsh prison. The wheelchair-bound Gustavson suffers from limited mobility resulting from his decision to have his leg frozen and amputated. He also choose to have his penis and a nipple surgically removed.

The three men responsible for the three surgical procedures performed on Gustavson earlier pleaded guilty to the crimes, as reported by the BBC.

In April, Nathan Arnold, 48, pleaded guilty to charges related to the removal of Gustavson’s nipple. Damian Byrnes, 35, pleaded guilty to charges related to the surgical removal of Gustavson’s penis. And Peter Wates, 66, pleaded guilty to charges related to the freezing and amputation of Gustavson’s leg.

Another man, Ian Ciucur, 29, pleaded guilty on December 14 to charges related to what prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC called “castration by clamping” on two separate occasions in July 2019.

These and other surgical procedures were live-streamed or recorded on videos which were later posted to a dark website for paying customers. The men were part of a larger subculture known as “nullos” who glorify and find gratification in the removal or nullification of one’s genitals.

Police in the case believe they have identified at least 13 victims and 29 separate offenses involving castration and genital mutilation, the trade and sale of genitals and body parts, and the sale of videos and live-streams of the procedures on a since-deleted dark website.

To the shouts of “Shame!” in the courtroom, a judge in Russia last week sentenced a lesbian artist who criticized the country’s military actions in Ukraine in a supermarket protest last year to seven years in a penal colony.

Alexandra Skochilenko, 33, was convicted last Wednesday of spreading knowingly false information about the use of the armed forces and the government’s use of its authority. On March 31, 2022, Skochilenko, also known as Sasha, had switched out the price tags at a Perekrestok supermarket with stickers that looked like price tags but contained a series of antiwar messages. A witness alerted authorities, and Skochilenko was arrested April 11 under Article 207.3 of Russia’s Criminal Code, which in effect outlaws criticism of the Russian government and military.

Skochilenko admitted to leaving the messages but denied she committed a crime because, she said, she only told the truth. The court also heard that Skochilenko suffers from bipolar disorder, heart disease, PTSD, and celiac disease, and has a cyst in her right ovary.

On Wednesday, Judge Oksana Demyasheva sentenced her to seven years in prison.

Before the verdict was read, however, Skochilenko remained defiant.

“The state prosecutor said repeatedly that these five tiny pieces of paper were exceptionally dangerous to our state and society,” Skochilenko said in court Wednesday. “What weak faith our prosecutor has in our national society if he thinks that our state and our common security might collapse because of these tiny papers! What harm did I do? Who suffered because of my act? The prosecutor didn’t say a word about that.”

After the verdict was read, supporters of Skochilenko shouted “Shame!” and “We’re with you, Sasha!” according to the Kyiv Post.

“This manifestly unjust verdict concludes a case in which the only crimes committed are those that have gone unpunished. One is against Aleksandra Skochilenko herself, who, having been arbitrarily deprived of her freedom and held in torturous conditions for 19 months, now faces the prospect of seven years in a penal colony,” Marie Struthers, director of Eastern Europe and Central Asia for Amnesty International, said in a statement after the verdict was read. “The other is Russian aggression against the people of Ukraine, which Aleksandra was simply trying to expose. Her persecution has become synonymous with the absurdly cruel oppression faced by Russians openly opposing their country’s criminal war. The immediate and unconditional release of Aleksandra Skochilenko and all activists jailed solely for engaging in peaceful anti-war dissent is imperative.”

In a series of five tags available on a Save Sasha website, Skochilenko accused the armed forces of committing genocide, called Putin a liar, and described Russia as a fascist state.

“My great-grandfather did not take part in the Great Patriotic War [World War II] for four years in order for Russia to become a fascist state and attack Ukraine,” one of the stickers read.

Another sticker asked why state media was not covering the civilian death toll in Ukraine.

Skochilenko has remained steadfast in saying that her protests were strictly antiwar in nature and that she was concerned about the harm suffered by innocent victims in the Ukraine conflict. She also said her statements about the government and military were truthful.

Prosecutors presented expert witnesses who declared there was no fascism in Russia and that the government was truthful and just in its statements and actions regarding the armed forces and Ukraine.

“Skochilenko compares the Russian Federation with a fascist state; they [prosecution expert witnesses] explained that in the Russian Federation now there are no elements of a fascist state,” prosecutor Alexander Gladyshev declared in court. “The words that Russia attacked Ukraine are false; the purpose of the SVO [special military operation] was to protect the citizens of Donbas from aggression.”

The conviction and sentencing come against the backdrop of heightened hostility to the LGBTQ+ community in Russia under President Vladimir Putin. On Friday, the country’s Ministry of Justice announced it had petitioned its country’s Supreme Court to declare the “international public LGBT movement” an extremist element and ban its activities within the country.

“The Russian Ministry of Justice has lodged an administrative legal claim with the Supreme Court to recognize the International LGBT public movement as extremist and ban its activity in Russia,” the ministry said in a statementannouncing the move.

The ministry also accused the “movement” of exhibiting “various signs and manifestations of extremism, including incitement to social and religious hatred.”

In July, Putin directed sexologists to help gay people overcome what he called the “mental disorder” of same-sex sexual attraction. A month earlier he ordered the Ministry of Health to create an institute to study queer people at the Serbsky Center for Psychiatry and Narcology.

In June, Russia passed a bill that banned gender-affirming surgery and treatment and outlawed changing official documents to align with a person’s true gender.

Last December, Putin signed a law strengthening a ban on LGBTQ “propaganda” in Russia and making it illegal to promote same-sex sexual relations or suggest non-heterosexual attractions are “normal.” Individuals can be fined up to 400,000 rubles ($6,370) for “LGBT propaganda” and up to 200,000 rubles ($3,185) for “demonstrations of LGBT and information that encourages a change of gender among teenagers.” The fines increase to 5 million rubles ($80,000) and 4 million rubles ($64,000) respectively for legal entities.

Olympian and WNBA star Britney Griner was held under harsh conditions in a Russian prison for nine months last year. She was held after empty vape cartridges containing remnants of THC were discovered in her luggage upon arrival in Moscow to play professionally in a local league. She was released in a prisoner exchange in December. Shortly after her release, Griner said she would never play overseas again unless it was in the Olympics.

Lawyers representing Skochilenko said they intend to appeal the conviction and sentencing.

Russian prosecutors have requested a sentence of eight years in a penal colony for a lesbian artist who criticized the country’s military actions in Ukraine in a supermarket protest last year, according to the Russian language Mediazona.

Alexandra Skochilenko, 33, has been charged with spreading knowingly false information about the use of the armed forces and the government’s use of its authority, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in a penal colony.

On March 31, 2022, Skochilenko, also known as Sasha, switched out the price tags at a Perekrestok supermarket with stickers that looked like price tags but contained a series of anti-war messages.

In a series of five tags available on a Save Sasha website, Skochilenko accused the armed forces of committing genocide, called Putin a liar, and described Russia as a fascist state.

“My great-grandfather did not take part in the Great Patriotic War (World War Two) for four years in order for Russia to become a fascist state and attack Ukraine,” read one of the stickers.

Another sticker asked why state media was not covering the civilian death toll in Ukraine.

A witness alerted authorities and Skochilenko was arrested on April 11, 2022. She has been held in custody since her arrest despite suffering from bipolar disorder and other serious physical conditions.

Skochilenko has been specifically charged by prosecutors with knowingly spreading false information because of alleged political and ideological hatred. Prosecutors presented expert witnesses who declared there was no fascism in Russia and that the government was truthful and just in its statements and actions regarding the armed forces and Ukraine.

“Skochilenko compares the Russian Federation with a fascist state, they [prosecution expert witnesses] explained that in the Russian Federation now there are no elements of a fascist state,” prosecutor Alexander Gladyshev declared in court. “The words that Russia attacked Ukraine are false; the purpose of the SVO [special military operation] was to protect the citizens of Donbas from aggression.”

For her part, Skochilenko disputed that she was motivated but hatred or political ideology.

“I just wanted to stop the war – that was my motivation. Not hatred, but compassion,” she told the court on November 3, according to the Russian language Mediazona. “I am sure that every person in this room does not want there to be a war. Even you, your honor, even you, the state prosecutor. You also don’t want people to die prematurely, for young soldiers to lie in the fields, for civilians to die. You, like any person, want peace, prosperity, love.”

The court also heard that in addition to suffering from bipolar disorder, Skochilenko also has a cyst in the right ovary, heart disease, PTSD, and celiac disease.

Skochilenko is due back in court on November 13.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov ordered the torture and murder of a popular Chechen singer because the Putin ally was personally insulted to have unknowingly shaken hands with the gay man, according to a new report.

Zelimkhan Bakaev went missing within hours after returning to Chechnya for his sister’s wedding in 2017. The popular singer had fled to Moscow due to the gay purge taking place in his home region. The new report from SK SOS said Kadyrov was aghast a photo existed of the two men shaking hands. SK SOS reports he ordered security forces to “deal with” Bakaev, who was tortured during much of the 13 hours he was in custody before he was executed.

The report also said Bakaev’s body was returned to his family with the order to “bury him like a dog.”

Months after Bakaev went missing, Kadyrov gave a speech to service members accusing Bakaev’s family of killing him because they learned he was gay.

“They told him, ‘Come over,’ and when he arrived, apparently his cousins or second cousins confronted him and said, ‘You’re gay,’” Kadyrov claimed in the 2018 speech.

Despite the denial of involvement, the speech was the first official admission that Bakaev was dead.

The torture and execution of Bakaev took place during a notorious purge of gay and bisexual menin the semi-autonomous Russian region, where scores were arrested and sent to camps where they were tortured and often killed.

During this same period, Kadyrov denied gay people existed in the country. During an interview with HBO’s Real Sports in 2017, he took offense at questions from reporter David Scott on his nation’s imprisonment and killing of gay and bisexual men.

“We don’t have those kinds of people here,” Kadyrov responded after scolding Scott for asking the question. “If there are there take them to Canada… Take them far from us so we don’t have them at home… To purify our blood, if there are any here, take them.”

An upcoming government report on homophobia in the U.K. armed forces will show a climate of blatant homophobia, incidents of blackmail and sexual assaults, and a campaign of drugs and electric shock treatment to “cure” LGBTQ+ service members of their homosexuality.

The report, which covers 1967 to 2000, when the country’s ban on LGBTQ+ service members ended, is set for release next month and an advance copy was seen by Bloomberg. Commissioned last year by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the report contains over a thousand anonymous submissions from individuals who served in the U.K. military between 1967 to 2000. Terence Etherton, the independent or crossbench member of the House of Lords who led the investigation, said many service members were left “severely traumatized” by their experienced.

The accounts from former service members “paint a vivid picture of overt homophobia at all levels of the armed forces…and of the bullying that inevitability reflected it,” Etherton said.

Many veterans said they were told they had to take medication and undergo psychiatric treatment to remain in the military. One person said his treatment took place while he was seated on a toilet and the medical staff questioning him were drinking beer. Another said they had electrodes placed on their head and received electric shocks when shown naked pictures.

“I had some type of bruising/burn marks where they put the electrodes,” the unnamed person revealed in the report.

Other accounts reportedly detail how LGBTQ+ service members were singled out for abuse. One female veteran said she was assaulted by two male service members, then placed in a psychiatric ward and later discharged when she complained. Another said her superior threatened to have her discharged for being gay if she reported his attempt at raping her. Others reported being followed by military police, having military police show up at local gay bars.