Overview
- Bartosz Poklek was sentenced on Friday to three years and three months in prison after admitting he ran encrypted chat groups that commissioned, scripted, sold and shared almost 3,000 videos showing the prolonged torture and killing of monkeys.
- Prosecutors said Poklek organised payments, drafted scripts for specific injuries, ran a group called “BP empire,” and enabled an ‘abuse‑on‑demand’ model that let users pay to direct how animals were harmed.
- Court evidence included graphic footage of baby macaques being set alight, fed alcohol, bound and mutilated while alive and testimony that some animals were dressed as babies, raising concern they were used as proxies for child‑abuse material.
- Law enforcement credited a multinational probe involving the Metropolitan Police, the National Wildlife Crime Unit and U.S. Homeland Security with the 2025 arrest at his Bexley home and with building the case that led to guilty pleas on multiple offences.
- The judge imposed a five‑year Serious Crime Prevention Order—thefirst time that order has been used in a wildlife case—and prosecutors and charities urged Parliament and platforms to strengthen sentencing and remove illegal content more quickly.