SENTENCED: Monkey Torture | 2 Worcestershire women given prison time | West Mercia Police

TW: Animal Cruelty
Two women have been jailed today at Worcester Crown Court today (13 November 2024) for their part in a global monkey torture ring.
Holly LeGresley, 37, of Kidderminster was sentenced to two years and Adriana Orme, 55, of Upton-upon Severn to one year and three months in prison. Both had previously pleaded guilty at separate hearings to publishing an obscene article and causing unnecessary suffering to animals.
LeGresley and Orme discovered the online monkey hate community during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Their interest and involvement escalated and following intelligence from the National Crime Agency they were arrested by West Mercia Police in September and October 2022 as part of a joint operation with the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU).
The monkey hate community is an online group of people who enjoy watching - and in some cases paying for - videos of monkeys being abused, tortured and killed.
LeGresley and Orme’s interest in the subject was initially through TH-cam, but quickly escalated to groups on private messaging platforms such as Telegram and Discord.  Through these groups both women developed links with one of the main organisers of the global ring, a man in the USA called Michael Macartney, known online as ‘The Torture King’.  He was their direct line of contact to the people in Indonesia who carried out and filmed the torture. Earlier this month McCartney, 50, was jailed for three years and four months in the US state of Virginia for his part in the ring.
LeGresley took on the role of ‘admin’ in a group on Telegram which meant she welcomed new members and helped them to access videos and photographs of monkeys being tortured.  She then took her involvement a step further by taking on responsibility for archiving all the content in the Telegram group as well as other groups, leading to a library of thousands of images and videos all showing monkey abuse, torture and killing.
Both women watched the content themselves, and as evidenced by comments within the Telegram group expressed their delight at the images and videos they were viewing.  They also regularly shared content.
LeGresley even set up a poll for members of the group to vote on the specific type of torture they would like to see inflicted on the monkeys.  She then directed people on how to make payment for the production of the video, with her and Orme both contributing financially.
Anyone who sees any content on social media which shows animal cruelty should not comment on the post or engage with it as this will increase its visibility.  Instead, please report the post to the social media platform.  The content can also be reported at reportharmfulc.... 
Information relating to animal cruelty can also be passed to the RSPCA or your local police force.  
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