A man accused of commissioning video showing the torture of baby monkeys was sentenced to nine years in prison on July 21.
Nicholas Dryden of English Wood pleaded guilty in March to multiple federal offenses. Investigators said he paid “relatively small sums of money” to a 17-year-old in Indonesia to film himself mutilating and killing juvenile long-tailed macaque monkeys.
Dryden then distributed these films, often called “animal crush videos,” a network of groups he administered over the encrypted message platform called Telegram.
During the sentencing, Dryden’s defense attorney Karen Savir told Judge Susan J. Dlott that Dryden’s sentence is higher than those of other animal crush cases across the nation. The sentence was also longer than the seven years federal prosecutors asked for in a sentencing memorandum.
Prosecutor Adam Cullman said Dryden’s sentence should be severe due to his elevated criminal history, his “leadership role” in the crime and the involvement of a minor.
These factors differentiated Dryden’s case from other animal crush cases, he told the judge, who ultimately agreed with Cullman.
“I don’t know if there’s any judge that’s given the sentence as great as the one I’m going to give,” said Judge Dlott. “I’ve seen a lot in my 53 years of practice and 31 years on the bench. But this is by far the worst criminal case I have ever had or ever want to have again.”
The videos are illegal under a 2010 federal law that criminalizes so-called animal crush videos.
In one message, Dryden told the teen: “Be creative with the next one. Pull his tongues as far as you can with pliers. Put his feet in boiling water, cut off his ears and set his head on fire with a lighter,” according to court records.
Investigators said he encouraged the teen to be nice to the monkeys at the beginning of the videos, then “get violent.” He directed the teen to torture the young macaques in front of other monkeys. He also asked the teen to make the videos longer, once offering him $40 extra dollars if he could make the video last two hours, court documents state.
“The government cannot overstate the level of violence inflicted on the monkeys at the direction of Dryden and his co-conspirators,” prosecutors wrote. “These were living creatures that Dryden had mutilated for his own personal enjoyment and to make money.”
One of Dryden’s co-conspirators, Giancarlo Morelli of New Jersey, was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison in connection to the videos. Prosecutors described Morelli as one of Dryden’s best customers.
Another 11 people have been indicted federally for buying videos from Dryden.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Man behind network of animal torture videos gets 9 years in prison
Reporting by Cameron Knight and Jane Park, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Cameron Knight and Jane Park, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
