A retired Church of England vicar has admitted his role in an extreme body modification ring run by man who called himself the Eunuch Maker.
Warning: The following article contains graphic details of extreme physical mutilation
Reverend Geoffrey Baulcomb, 79, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent at the Old Bailey after using nail scissors to perform a procedure on man’s penis in January 2020.
A nine-second video of the incident was found on his mobile phone.
He previously admitted seven charges, including possessing extreme pornography and making and distributing images of children on or before 14 December 2022.
Prosecutors said some of the material included moving images which had been on the eunuch maker website, run by 47-year-old Norwegian national Marius Gustavson.
Gustavson was jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years last year after a court heard he made almost £300,000 through his website, where thousands of users paid to watch procedures, including castrations.
Baulcomb was said to have been an “acquaintance” of Gustavson, and the pair exchanged more than 10,000 messages with each other over a four-year period.
Judge Nigel Lickley KC released him on conditional bail as he adjourned sentencing to 1 September but warned he faces a prison sentence “of some length”.
Baulcomb was formerly a vicar at St Mary the Virgin Church in Eastbourne but retired from full-time ministry in the Church of England in 2003.
The diocese of Chichester said he applied for “permission to officiate”, which allows clergy to officiate at church services in retirement, when he moved to Sussex the following year.
Baulcomb was banned for life from exercising his Holy Orders following a tribunal last year, which heard he was issued with a caution after police found crystal meth and ketamine at his home in December 2022.
He had claimed experimenting with drugs or allowing his home in Eastbourne to be used for drug taking would “better enable him to relate and minister to people with difficulties as part of his pastoral care”.
The diocese said the Bishop of Chichester immediately removed his permission to officiate after being contacted by police, and bail conditions prevented him from attending church or entering Church of England premises.
“The Diocese wishes to put on record our gratitude for the Metropolitan Police’s pro-active approach to information sharing and partnership working, which has enabled us to manage the risks Mr Baulcomb has presented whilst under investigation,” a statement said.
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The Old Bailey heard last year that extreme body modification is linked to a subculture where men become “nullos”, short for genital nullification, by having their penis and testicles removed.
Gustavson and nine other men have previously admitted their involvement in the eunuch maker ring, which one victim said had a “cult-like” atmosphere.
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The life-changing surgeries, described as “little short of human butchery” by the sentencing judge, were carried out by people with no medical qualifications, who he had recruited.
Prosecutors said there was “clear evidence of cannibalism” as Gustavson – who had his own penis and nipple removed and leg frozen so it needed to be amputated – cooked testicles to eat in a salad.
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Gustavson, who was said to have been involved in almost 30 procedures, pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm between 2016 and 2022.
In interviews from prison, he has told Norwegian broadcaster NRK for a podcast series “Evnukkmakeren” he is “just a very, very kind person who perhaps went a little too far to help people live a better life”.
Gustavson, who lost an appeal against his sentence earlier this year, said: “What we did, what we perhaps created, what we did, was good and fine. But I think, yes… something might have gone wrong somewhere.”
