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Michael Macartney, 51, pleaded guilty this week to conspiracy to create and distribute animal crushing videos, most of which involved monkeys over the course of nearly a year.
According to court documents, between November 2021 and August 2022, Macartney and his co-conspirators were involved in a private online group chat that was encrypted to share the disturbing imagery.
"(They) were members of other private online chat groups on an encrypted messaging platform for the purpose of funding, viewing, distributing, and promoting videos depicting, among other things, the torture, murder, and sexually sadistic mutilation of animals, specifically, juvenile and adult monkeys," prosecutors stated.
Macartney was the subject of a massive BBC story that led to a documentary "The Monkey Haters," and others are facing charges both stateside and in the UK.
Court documents state that Macartney received more than 300 payments from customers who promoted, created, obtained, received, and distributed the torture videos.
On one occasion, prosecutors said that Macartney raised additional funds for a bonus payment to a videographer who, at the request of the co-conspirators and on short notice, created a video of a juvenile monkey being tortured with a jar of ants, leading to the monkey’s death.
"The video depicted the torture of a juvenile monkey using a jar of ants and sodomy with an object," which resulted in the fatality.
Following the distribution of the video on June 21, 2022, members of the private group, in regards to the video with the ants, said "I love how he had doubts, but was able to make the ants request work on short notice," and bonus payments wre made to the videographer.
In March 2022, also sent a link to one customer, stating there were upwards of 2,300 videos, and in August that year, he was found in possession of at least 500 videos depicting animal crushing.
The Chesapeake resident is scheduled to be sentenced in September, when he will face up to five years in prison.
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