Two women in the United Kingdom (UK) have been jailed for their roles in a global network of monkey torture. Jailing the women, Judge James Burbidge KC (Kings’s Counsel) said their actions were “beyond comprehension for most of society.”
Adriana Orme (56) and Holly Le Gresley (37) were sentenced after admitting their involvement in the group. The netwerk filmed the torture of baby long-tailed macaques in Indonesia and spread the videos globally.
Worcester Crown Court heard that Le Gresley played a leading role in distributing the footage. She uploaded over 130 videos and 22 images, and making payments to encourage the cruelty. She received a two-year prison sentence, while Orme was given a year and three months.
The network was exposed after a BBC investigation. The BBC discovered that people paid to have baby monkeys taken from their mothers, tortured, and killed. They also found the involvement of the two UK women.
The BBC team that reported on this case emphasized the lack of empathy shown by the women. Despite their defense teams’ claims of mental health issues, the judge rejected requests for suspended sentences, pointing out the horrific suffering caused to the animals.
He added that the women promoted and shared videos of the torture for their own amusement, causing significant pain and cruelty to the monkeys in Indonesia.
Who buys these videos?
Detective Chief Inspector Ben Arrowsmith of West Mercia Police described the case as a “landmark” in UK legal history, as it was the first time charges had been brought for animal cruelty committed abroad by offenders based in the UK.
The investigation continues, with police recovering thousands of files from the women’s devices.
Police are also pursuing buyers of monkey torture videos as they contribute to the suffering of animals. Several arrests have already been made.
The BBC found customers in the United Kingdom, United States and elsewhere.
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