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THE SADISTIC mastermind of a global monkey torture network today got his just desserts – and was put behind bars himself for more than three years.
Jobless Bartosz Poklek, 30, orchestrated the slaughter of the animals through encrypted online groups from his room in a South London HMO.
Twisted members of his forums paid for harrowing acts of violence to be inflicted on macaque monkeys and livestreamed from Indonesia.
Among Poklek’s “zoo sadists” were four British women with a savage lust for torturing primates.
One of them claimed to be transferring a hatred of pregnant women and children onto monkeys, said police.
Some female monkey torture facilitators also spoke of suffering from ‘Happy Valley’ syndrome, in which they feel deep revulsion for human-like entities.
Polish national Poklek was treated as a god-like figure among the community of monkey haters and known as ‘The General,’ ‘The Boss,’ and the ‘Big Man.’
However, the “mythical persona” at the centre of the web of hate was discovered to be an unemployed “low life” with a “fetish for sadism and child pornography.”
Poklek was arrested at 3am on 16 September last year during a raid by UK and US law officials on his room at the HMO in Lewisham.
When cops burst in, they found him viewing monkeys being tortured on “James Bondesque” computers, protected with state-of-the-art security systems.
Poklek was today jailed at London’s Woolwich Crown Court for three years and three months after pleading guilty in July to encouraging crime under Section 44 of the Serious Crime Act 2007.
The monkey monster also admitted possessing indecent images of children and obscene publication offences.
He would have faced the maximum sentence of five years but his tariff was reduced for his guilty pleas.
The court heard Poklek played a leading role in the “monkey hate” online community, running chat groups and distributing thousands of “abuse on demand” videos and images.
Judge Christopher Grout laid out details of the “despicable” online community, telling the court: “It is no exaggeration to say that as a lawyer or as a judge I have never encountered such a horrific case of animal abuse in my life.
“The facts of the offending are truly appalling, likely to cause distress to anyone listening to or reading about them.
“There is a vile underground community who have a hatred of monkeys, particularly baby monkeys, and take pleasure in seeing such monkeys being tortured and killed.”
Chief Inspector Kevin Lacks-Kelly, head of the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit, described Poklek as “the central figure” behind closed online groups of monkey haters.
He said members “shared a common and depraved fascination with inflicting prolonged, escalating torture on monkeys.”
The chief inspector added: “Those inflicting the torture deliberately kept the animals alive for as long as possible to extend their suffering and recorded the acts for their own perverse gain.”
He said Poklek and his acolytes paid for monkeys to be dismembered while alive and their body parts fed into a blender.
Primates were filmed being boiled alive, having their genitals and fingers cut off, being skewered with a kebab rod from top to tail and sexually abused.
Mother monkeys and their babies were slaughtered in front of each other by locals and one man was filmed cutting open the top of a skull and eating the animal’s brain.
Poklek was known as BP to his venomous followers, many of whom lived ordinary lives on the surface.
Chief Inspector Lacks-Kelly said: “He was a mythical persona figure who we only ever knew as BP.
“We never suspected he was resident in the UK. We thought he was in wider Europe or potentially the States.
“He was controlling almost all of these closed Telegram groups.
“He was referred to as ‘The General’, ‘The Boss,’ the ‘Big Man.’
“Everybody idolised him. He was like a deity figure… he was empowered to the point he had a God-like persona within his group.
“In reality he was just a low life living in a HMO in Lewisham with a fetish for sadism and child pornography.”
Poklek operated the UK arm of the monkey torture ring while American Mike ‘The Torture King’ McCartney, 51, ran the US wing from his Virginia home.
McCartney was exposed in a June 2023 BBC documentary named ‘The Monkey Haters.
He was jailed in November the following year for three years and four months, leaving Poklek in sole charge.
Chief Inspector Lacks-Kelly said intelligence about monkey torture networks was first received from the UK’s National Crime Agency Asia desk in June 2022.
He said: “There was intelligence that some may potentially be operating in the UK and there were user names.
“We took this on as a development project and within three months we had identified five individuals in the United Kingdom.”
The chief inspector likened the monkey torture film to “snuff movies” showing humans being killed.
Local monkey torturers in Indonesia were paid between $200(£151) to for livestreaming the slaughter, several months’ wages for some of them.
Four of the five suspects initially identified in the UK were women.
Scottish mum-of-two Natalie Herron, 39, of Airdrie, in Lanarkshire, was a senior group member who was jailed for two years and three months in June last year.
Using the handle name ‘The Immolator,’ she sent 4,000 messages on an encrypted app, including: “Oh my God the little b*d is making my ears bleed.”
Another read: “I am shocked how easily the drill went through the skull, it was like butter”.
And she wrote: “Trying to find a video where they will kill the mum and the babies watch.”
In November 2024, Holly LeGresley, 37, of Kidderminster, was sentenced to two years and Adriana Orme, 55, of Upton-upon Severn, jailed for one year and three months at Worcester crown court after admitting paying for moneys to e trortured..
Chief Inspector Lacks-Kelly said: “They were polar opposites. Legresley was vulnerable and Orme was a grandmother who lived in a million-pound large house.
“She(Orme) had chatted online about monkey torture and within the chat she said ‘I’ve got to go, I’ve got to pick the grandkids up.’”
Another woman in South Wales was deemed too ill by the CPS to be prosecuted.
Family man Paul Stanley, 42, of Knotty Ash, Liverpool, was jailed for 20 months in November 2924 after admitting uploading the torture and killing of long-tailed macaque monkeys.
Meanwhile, in the US one leading group member was discovered to be former US attorney prosecutor Colt Moss, who later killed himself, and another was in the air force.
Poklek was finally unmasked following a joint investigation by the UK’s National Wildlife Crime Unit, police forces and US’ Homeland Security Investigations and the Fish and Wildlife Service.
But his computers and phones were programmed to wipe everything if any third party had tried to take them over.
Digital forensic specialists were called in and seized two terabytes of material on four hard drives and several mobile phones.
Analysis revealed the leading role in the groups which Poklek had played and the twisted monkey torture methods.
Specially-selected investigators were given support and counselling after having to sift through the harrowing evidence.
After the case, Sarah Kite, co-founder and spokesperson for Action for Primates, said: : “Bartosz Poklek belongs behind bars, and we welcome the prison sentence that has been handed down to him today.
“Vulnerable and helpless baby monkeys were subjected to the most unimaginable pain, suffering and distress because of him and the monkey torture networks he ran.
“I am extremely grateful to the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU), UK Police forces and US law enforcement agencies for taking action against Bartosz Poklek, and for their continuing pursuit of those people involved in these vile and sadistic groups.
