Female recluse told police she abused monkeys 'because she hated pregnant women and children': British ringleader of monkey torture network tried to blame offending on made up disorder 'Happy Valley S

A female recluse who played a key role in an international monkey torturing network reportedly claimed to police that she wanted to abuse infant macaques due to a pathological hatred of pregnant women and children.

Holly LeGresley, 37, from Kidderminster, uploaded 22 images and 132 videos on Telegram showing monkeys being beaten, burned and even doused in acid by members if the torture ring based overseas in her role as the group's 'archivist'.

Posting online under the moniker 'The Immolator', the fiend set up a voting mechanism where group members could decide what method of torture and death they would prefer, and once discussed putting a monkey in a blender.

LeGresley was jailed for two years at Worcester Crown Court yesterday alongside her co-conspirator Adriana Orme, 56, a married mother of three with a pet rescue dog - who received 15 months.

It has subsequently been reported that LeGresley tried to excuse her actions in police interviews by faking a fictitious disorder known as 'Happy Valley Syndrome", which involves an irrational hatred of young children and pregnant women.

Following the claim officers consulted a psychiatrist, who told them the disorder did not exist and there was no evidence LeGresley had a severe mental illness, the Telegraph disclosed following the sentencing.

The judge told both women their offences represented a course of conduct that can only be described as 'depraved, sickening and wicked'.

He said both defendants had high culpability factors from prolonged and serious cruelty, and sadistic behaviour, and said LeGresley had played a leading role in the torture network.

The judge told the pair: 'Neither of you can explain away your conduct as pure fantasy as you seemed to assert in interviews with police.'

A year-long BBC investigation into the torture network in 2022 revealed a chain of participants around the globe who would 'commission' people living in Thailand or Indonesia to film monkeys being tortured to later be shared online.

BBC journalists went undercover in one of the main Telegram torture groups after the charity Action for Primates discovered people were paying to buy monkeys in Indonesia to be tortured.

Journalists in the Telegram group found hundreds of people trading extreme torture ideas, with the goal of creating bespoke videos which were then sold, sometimes for as little as £10.

Worcester Crown Court heard the two women, both from Worcestershire, were participants in online chatrooms where abuse was discussed.

Judge Burbidge told the pair: 'You promoted the physical torture of monkeys by others, you shared videos and images of such torture and abuse, retained images and videos for what appeared to be your own pleasure and amusement.'

He said 'socially awkward' Orme's involvement in the network began with her wanting to stop 'this outrageous behaviour' but said she then 'got a taste for it'.

And he told LeGresley she had 'caused significant pain, torture and death to the monkeys in Indonesia'.

The gore-obsessed woman - who lives with her parents - previously described Hannibal Lecter, a serial killer who eats his victims, and Pennywise, the clown from IT who preys on children, as her 'horror icons'.

But other posts on social media showed her cradling and cuddling cockatiels or holding a tarantula.

The torture network shared 61 folders with approximately 3,000 images and videos, the court heard.

LeGresley sobbed in the dock as the court heard how she planned to create videos showing severe injuries to monkeys.

She expressed a desire for a baby monkey to undergo severe trauma, and also for one monkey to watch another animal die.

She also ordered a whip-round for one member who had funded videos, writing: 'She's done so much... delivering one of the best videos we've seen for a long time.'

The judge was read a catalogue of monkey torture methods which included attacks with scissors. One monkey died after being tortured for around 10 minutes.

The court heard Orme, who attended court with her husband, was known as Noelle in the online chatrooms.

She had more than 1,200 cached images of monkey torture on her computer, and a USB stick seized by police contained five videos of monkeys being tortured.

Prosecutor Ben Close said Orme expressed a preference for mental torture, wanting to torture monkeys and heal them, before torturing them again.

In a post on Facebook she wrote: 'My monkey hatred seems to be back.

'Shame they don't do a diploma in monkey hatred.'

Ahead of the sentencing, the women were greeted by placard-waving protesters shouting 'shame' as they arrived at court. One sign read 'social media enables animal abuse'.

LeGresley, from Kidderminster, admitted uploading photos and videos of monkeys being tortured, as well as paying £17.24 via PayPal to a contact in order to encourage or assist the commission of acts causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

Orme, from Upton upon Severn, has admitted sending one image and 26 videos featuring monkey torture into chat groups, between 14 March 2022 and 16 June 2022 .

Softly-spoken Orme further admitted encouraging an offence by making a £10 payment to a PayPal account - the price of seeing a baby macaque being tortured.

The court heard Orme had taken steps to address her behaviour and was on the waiting list for cognitive behavioural therapy, while LeGresley had a long history of depression and anxiety and was likely to be diagnosed with autism.

Despite their shared interest in monkey torture, the pair had never met, and only set eyes on each other for the first time at their initial magistrates court hearing in May.

LeGresley and Orme were members of a Telegram group run by Michael Macartney from Virginia , USA, who called himself ''the Torture King''. Macartney, who was recently sentenced to three years and four months in prison for conspiring to make and distribute "animal crush" videos, ran several online Telegram groups that facilitated the 'torture, murder and sexually sadistic mutilation' of baby long-tailed macaques for 'fun.'

In their group chats on Telegram, Orme told other members: 'I love mental torture. It's funny what you can reach and see how they change.''

I would start f****** them up mentally, then slowly bit by bit physically, torture them, heal them, torture them, heal them. Keep them alive like this for as long as possible.'

LeGresley said: 'I feel very satisfied when I see monkeys suffer too. It makes me happy...whats the point in just killing them? That's no fun.'

Evidence obtained during the investigations by Action for Primates, a UK-based project that advocates globally on behalf of non-human primates, and Lady Freethinker, a US-based animal protection organisation, was given to various law enforcement agencies and spurred the BBC investigation .

Sarah Kite, spokesman for Action for Primates, said: 'Anyone involved in this type of behaviour must be held to account, and others need to know that such extreme cruelty and depravity will never be tolerated. We hope these sentences will deter others from becoming involved in these perverted and sadistic activities.'

Nina Jackel, Founder of Lady Freethinker, said the horrors inflicted on baby monkeys for online videos were 'sickening', adding: 'Those involved in the creation or distribution of animal torture content for 'enjoyment' pose a threat to both animals and humans, and they must be held accountable.'

Worcester Crown Court heard that the women had become members of online groups dedicated to the sadistic torture of Macaque monkeys in Indonesia.

Both paid an American intermediary known as 'Torture King' to commission their twisted fantasies which were carried out by an Indonesian called 'OKBro' whose real name was Lupe.

Sentencing them, His Honour Judge Burbidge KC, described the women, both first time offenders, as 'depraved, sickening and wicked.'

Both women were arrested after a year-long investigation by the BBC and a police inquiry which was assisted by Action for Primates, a UK-based environmental conservation group.

LeGresley of Baldwin Road, Kidderminster, admitted that she uploaded 22 images and 132 videos of monkeys being tortured to online chat groups between March 25 and May 8 2022, and made a payment to a PayPal account to encourage cruelty on April 25 of the same year.

Dutch-born Orme from Upton upon Severn pleaded guilty in August to publishing an obscene by uploading one image and 26 videos of monkey torture between April 14 and June 16 2022, and to having encouraged or assisted the commission of unnecessary suffering by making a £10 payment to a PayPal account on April 26 2022.

Having originally joined a group called HCage, Le Gresley, from Kidderminster, complained about 'rules' preventing 'sex stuff'.

She was then invited in March 2022 by Mike Macartney, also known as 'Torture King', to join another group and wrote: 'Finally the uncensored version'.

Orme joined the group a month later.

Prosecutor Ben Close told the sentencing hearing that they soon set about commissioning their own video to be made.

Le Gresley wrote to the group saying: 'I have something that might interest you. I have a guy to crowdfund a monkey in Indonesia.

'Basically he buys a onkey just for us. He will do just about anything to it that you want.'

Discussing putting a monkey into a blender, Le Gresley said: 'I would like to see it spun on slowly and tormented – have some limbs broken. If it does not suffer it feels like a waste of a good rat.'

Le Gresley's enthusiasm for torture led to her being appointed the group moderator by Macartney who said: 'If you need something organising cal the Immolator. She's your girl.'

She advised that a baby monkey should be clothed before being put into a blender as it would, 'make the death more drawn out' and posted comments such as, 'OMFG, epic blender video'.

Encouraged by the blender video, Le Gresley got others in the group to pay in for more videos to be made.

She said: 'It is like when you commission a piece of art. You put your trust in the artist to bring your vision to life.'

Orme paid £10 to a PayPal account for a video to be made and Le Gresley sent payments worth £40.29.

One torture idea discussed by the group was to take a cheese grater to a monkey's bottom, rub lemon juice into the wounds and then hang it from a ceiling fan.

Le Gresley rubbished the idea saying she feared 'OKBro' might 'go too easy' on the monkey.

Her idea of putting a baby monkey into a sealed jar with red ants won the vote.

Lupe (OkBro) was paid $105 for his services.

The final video showed a young monkey trapped in a tiny jar with red ants. It struggled to breathe.

It then had its eyelids removed and was impaled by a spike through its anus which came out of the top of its head.

After 16 minutes of torture, the monkey died and a second creature was then subjected to the same treatment.

Orme wrote: 'I loved seeing the ants and the shish kebab.'

Le Gresley urged members to watch with the 'sound on' as the screams sounded 'like a small child'.

During the two and a half hour hearing, Le Gresley sobbed in the dock and asked for water, bringing the hearing to a temporary halt.

She had told police that she was suffering from PTSD as a result of what she had seen.

She had written: 'I love the look of confusion and betrayal on the little shit's face. I like to see the babies f***ed over. The younger they are, the more they deserve to get a beating.

'The adults I would shoot point blank in the face. The juveniles I want to torture for as long as possible until they die.'

Orme said she preferred 'mental torture'. 'Torture, heal, torture. Keep them alive as long as possible,' she wrote, before adding: 'My son is downstairs with me so can't watch...LOL.'

Le Gresley's obsession led to her assembling an archive of 65 folders with 3,000 images and videos classified according to the torture taking place.

One of the videos of a young monkey being tortured to death was set to 'The Entertainer' music.

Giving mitigation for Le Gresley, her barrister Tom Walkling said she was 'extremely remorseful' and had suffered from extreme fatigue syndrome for over a decade, making her unfit for work.

He said she was on the autistic spectrum and said custody would be 'inappropriate'.

Mitigating for Orme, Curtis Myrie described her as a caring mother and devoted to her rescue dog Diesel.

He said his client suffered from undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome and also lived with chronic pain from fibroid myalgia.

He said she had originally come across the monkey material on YouTube and had intended to report it but then became sucked in.

'Her condition meant she could not leave the abhorrent material alone,' he said.

Resisting calls for suspended sentences, Judge Burbidge told the defendants: "These offences represent a course of conduct by you both that can only be described as depraved, sickening and wicked.

"Using the comfort of your own homes you engaged in chat rooms through the internet.

Resisting calls for suspended sentences, Judge Burbidge told the defendants: "These offences represent a course of conduct by you both that can only be described as depraved, sickening and wicked.

"Perhaps in that environment you took leave of your senses and any real recognition of reality – as sadly some people appear to do when engaging with others on the internet.

"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.

"Why there even exists such a forum is beyond comprehension and a sad indictment to humanity. You promoted the physical torture of monkeys by others and you disseminated videos of such torture and abuse.

'I would be failing in my public duty were I not to give you custodial sentences.'

Prosecutor Ben Close said that childless LeGresley had told police that her phobia of childbirth was triggered by monkeys, especially monkeys that look like humans.

In an exchange with group members, she admitted wanting to see monkeys tortured but added that she did not 'need five years in jail.' This, said the prosecutor, showed she had researched the law and knew exactly what sentence she could expect.