Two Worcestershire women jailed for monkey cruelty offences

Two women from Worcestershire have been put behind bars for monkey cruelty offences.

Holly LeGresley, 37, from Kidderminster and Adriana Orme, 55, from Upton-upon Severn, were part of a social media group chat that would share images and videos of torture on primates and go as far as to pay for it to be done.

The court heard that there were 61 folders with approximately 3,000 images and videos in the online group.

LeGresley admitted uploading 22 images and 132 videos of monkeys being tortured to online chat groups and made a payment of £17.24 to a PayPal account to encourage cruelty.

She also went by the pseudonym of "TheImmolator" in the group chat and spoke about the time she would serve in prison if she was caught.

Orme admitted to have published an obscene article by uploading one image and 26 videos of monkey torture between April 14 and the June 16 2022.

She was also found to have encouraged or assisted the commission of unnecessary suffering by making a £10 payment to a PayPal account on April 26 2022.

The court was told the women had "not carried out monkey torture themselves".

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."

Detective Constable Paul Arundale from West Mercia Police worked on the case.

He said: "Viewing the material has had an impact on the team and support was offered and taken up by some staff members.

"If I hadn't seen the material myself I'd have been sceptical that it existed.

"It's really the stuff of nightmares."

Sarah Kite, co-founder of Action for Primates worked on the investigation, she said: "We were alerted to videos on social media platforms and they were tormenting the monkeys and teasing them and nothing could have prepared us for what followed.

"In all my years of working in animal protection, this is the most horrific animal cruelty that I've ever encountered.

"One of the disturbing things we encountered was the comments, just the lack of empathy and lack of compassion."

LeGresley will serve two years in jail and Orme 15 months.

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