Woman pleads guilty to online monkey cruelty offences after global investigation

A woman has admitted uploading 22 images and 132 videos of monkeys being tortured to online chat groups.

Holly LeGresley was told that “all options” will be available at her sentencing hearing next month after she pleaded guilty to separate charges of publishing obscene articles and intentionally encouraging animal cruelty.

The 37-year-old, who was charged following an investigation by the BBC into torture of monkeys overseas, covered her face with a surgical mask as she left Worcester Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

The court was told that the case against LeGresley, of Baldwin Road, Kidderminster, Worcestershire, should be transferred to Worcester Crown Court because magistrates’ powers of punishment were insufficient.

Prosecutor Angla Hallan  told the court: “The Crown submit that due to the unusual legal, procedural and factual complexity of this particular case, that the matter would not be suitable to be dealt with in these courts.”

Although she did not open detailed facts of the case, Ms Hallan said it fell into the category of “sadism and high harm”.

West Mercia Police charged LeGresley, the court heard, after being informed by the national wildlife crime unit.

A second defendant, Adriana Orme, 55, of The Beeches, Ryall, near Upton-upon Severn, also Worcestershire, did not indicate any plea to similar charges.

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

Ms Hallan told the court both women had been charged after being identified as having been part of online chat groups, after the BBC had been involved in “exposing the trade”.

Orme is alleged to have published an obscene article by uploading one image and 26 videos of monkey torture between April 14 and the June 16 2022, and to have encouraged or assisted the commission of unnecessary suffering by making a £10 payment to a PayPal account on April 26 2022.

LeGresley, who left court without comment, admitted uploading images of monkey torture between March 25 and May 8 2022, and made a payment of £17.24 to a PayPal account to encourage cruelty on April 25 of the same year.

Although details of the BBC’s undercover investigation were not given in court, a BBC Eye inquiry led to at least 20 people being placed under investigation globally last year.

The investigation exposed a global monkey torture network involving a private online group paying people in Indonesia to kill and torture baby monkeys on video.

The BBC reported that LeGresley used the username “The Immolator” and ran a poll for members of the group on which method of torture should be inflicted upon an infant monkey.

The case against Orme was transferred to the Crown Court, where she was ordered to appear on June 5.

LeGresley will face sentence at the higher court on June 7.

Both defendants were granted conditional bail and ordered not to have unsupervised contact with any animal or child.