I took my hatred of babies and women out on monkeys, claims female recluse behind torture ring

A British woman who helped run a global monkey torture ring told police she wanted to abuse infant macaques because she had a pathological hatred of young children.

Holly LeGresley, 37, from Kidderminster, Worcestershire, acted as the "archivist" for an online chat group that arranged for the macaques to be tortured overseas.

Under her online moniker "The Immolator", she uploaded 132 videos and 22 pictures of the monkeys being maimed with power tools, burnt alive and doused with acid.

The horrific footage was shared on the encrypted messaging app Telegram by members who had commissioned video-makers in Indonesia to carry out the torture.

LeGresley, characterised by police as an underachieving recluse, wanted, on one occasion, for a monkey to be put in a blender while clothed to "make the death more drawn out".

She later set up a voting mechanism that allowed group members to decide on their preferred method of torture and death.

West Mercia Police

LeGresley's obsession led her to assemble an archive of 65 folders containing 3,000 images and videos, classified according to the torture taking place.

She was jailed for two years at Worcester Crown Court on Wednesday after previously pleading guilty to publishing an obscene and causing unnecessary suffering to animals.

Her co-defendant Adriana Orme, 56, a married mother of three from Upton-upon-Severn, was jailed for 15 months after admitting to sending one image and 26 videos featuring monkey torture into chat groups between March 14 2022 and June 16 2022.

West Mercia Police

The Telegraph can disclose that in interviews with police, LeGresley tried to blame her sadistic offending on a fictitious disorder called "Happy Valley Syndrome", where one has an irrational hatred towards pregnant women and young children.

However, a psychiatrist consulted by officers stated that the condition did not exist and LeGresley was not suffering from any psychiatric or severe mental health disorders.

On Wednesday, Judge James Burbidge KC described the pair's offences as "depraved, sickening and wicked" and resisted pleas from their barristers to spare them custodial sentences.

The judge, who said he had been left "almost in disbelief" by the evidence in the case, told the defendants: "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."

He added: "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."

'Unequivocally the worst case I have ever seen' During the two-and-a-half-hour hearing, LeGresley sobbed in the dock and asked for water, bringing the proceedings to a temporary halt.

The head of the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU), who spearheaded the investigation alongside West Mercia Police, told The Telegraph it was the most horrific case of animal cruelty he had investigated in his 22 years of service.

LeGresley's offending had remained hidden until an undercover BBC investigation exposed her activities to the police in June last year.

LeGresley and Orme discovered the online monkey hate community during the pandemic and were arrested in September and October respectively.

Ch Insp Kevin Lacks-Kelly, from the NWCU, said LeGresley had deliberately targeted infant macaques because they were the closest animal substitute to humans.

He told The Telegraph: "The general defence, almost that we have seen on a global scale, is that this 'product' is consumed because there's a general hatred for pregnant women or small children.

"So having this torture inflicted on the primates almost scratches this itch, satisfies that curiosity."

He said the level of suffering inflicted on the monkeys was "incomparable", adding: "It's unequivocally the worst case I have ever seen."

LeGresley admitted uploading images of monkey torture between 25 March and 8 May 2022 and making a payment of £17.24 to a PayPal account to encourage cruelty on 25 April 2022.

Giving mitigation for LeGresley, her barrister Tom Walkling said she was "extremely remorseful" and had suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome for over a decade, making her unfit for work.

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

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

He said his client suffered from undiagnosed Asperger's syndrome and also lived with chronic pain from fibromyalgia.

Det Ch Insp Ben Arrowsmith from West Mercia Police told The Telegraph that LeGresley had refused to take any responsibility for her role in facilitating the torture of monkeys during interviews with police.

He said LeGresley was a recluse who sought refuge in an online community that offered her a sense of status and worth.

"We are unaware of her trying to seek a prominent position in the community or of influence in real life," he added.

Mr Lacks-Kelly said: "She's got into this network, this community, and that raised her value by carrying out the roles, the administrator, welcoming people.

"Doing the archiving has raised her value as a community individual and then couple that with this hatred for pregnant women and children, and also being in a group of like-minded people, she could almost be her authentic self and that gives you a cause to live for."

Police said they had repeatedly contacted Telegram for comment on the group's activities but had received no response.

About 20 people worldwide are believed to have been investigated by authorities.

Mike Macartney, 50, an American former motorcycle gang member, was unmasked as the leader of the group under the screen name 'Torture King".

He was jailed for three years and four months in October.

Distressingly, much of the footage still remains available on YouTube or other video sharing platforms, The Telegraph has learnt.

LeGresley appeared to friends and family as an animal lover, regularly posting photographs on Facebook of her cradling her two pet cockatiels, Chancey and Princess Pea.

In one post, she launched into a tirade over a Hollywood superhero film that featured birds being burnt alive.

Writing in October 2021, after watching the Suicide Squad spin-off Birds of Prey, she said: "I just watched The Suicide Squad. They burn an aviary full of parrots alive using gasoline and call that entertainment.

"That's sick. You don't do that s-, even [with] computer graphics because it's too far. Shouldn't be allowed to put such gratuitous animal cruelty in a movie when it doesn't even really serve the story.

"Sick twisted people who made this film. Won't be spending any more of my money on the franchise. What a disappointment."