WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT. Holly LeGresley and Adriana Orme have been jailed for their parts in a global monkey torture network – described by a judge as ‘depraved, sickening and wicked’
Two women have been jailed for their parts in a global monkey torture network described by a judge as “depraved, sickening and wicked” – after they shared horrific videos of the animals being killed in blenders.
Holly Le Gresley, 37, who went by the username ‘The Immolator’, was part of a group on the messaging app Telegram that created, crowdfunded and commissioned videos of the animals being tortured by people in Indonesia. The helpless animals were filmed being beaten, doused in acid and put in blenders.
An investigation led by the BBC exposed the torture network involving two British women, with at least 20 people placed under investigation globally last year. LeGresley was today jailed at Worcester Crown Court for two years after admitting that she uploaded 22 images and 132 videos of monkeys being tortured to online chat groups, and making a payment to a PayPal account to encourage cruelty.
Mother-of-three Adriana Orme, aged 56, was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to publishing an obscene article by uploading one image and 26 videos of monkey torture, and to having encouraged or assisted the commission of unnecessary suffering by making a £10 payment to a PayPal account.
Judge James Burbidge KC said Dutch-born Orme and LeGresley, from Upton-upon-Severn and Kidderminster respectively, had joined online chat groups which encouraged torture of monkeys by offenders based in Indonesia.
The judge, who said he had been left “almost in disbelief” by the evidence in the case, told the defendants: “Quite what led you two women of good character and, I am satisfied, some intelligence, to engage in such a forum is beyond comprehension by any right-thinking member of society.”
The sadistic torture ring was found to have hundreds of online customers – from Indonesia to the United States – who would pay to suggest ways to torture and sometimes kill baby long-tailed macaques on film.
Following the year-long investigation, which was published in June 2023, one of the monkeys, named Mini, who featured in some of the films became famous among the ring. Her owner M Ajis Rasajana would film the sickening moments he would lock her in a room with him and slam her against the wall while laughing.
It’s thought the torture ring started on YouTube but after the appetite for more extreme abuse was realised, it moved to private groups on the messaging app Telegram.
