Man claimed £18,500 disability benefits after willingly having leg amputated, court told | UK news

21 comments

1. How far into the article did you get before wondering why the headline focused on benefits fraud of all things…

2. Well that’s enough internet for me for one day. Maybe week??

3. Nah what is this, the benefits part is the least wild shit in this article

4. This has been in the news for a while, the DLA payments are new information to me

   I can’t imagine willingly having my dick cut off in my kitchen, by an amateur. It’s so unhygienic.

5. I mean, that’s totally valid. Claiming disability benefits when you’re disabled, that is. I’m not saying that anything else described in the article is valid.

6. Imagine waking up and thinking “You know what, I don’t want 2 legs anymore, I can cope with one”

   Bloke must have serious issues. Hope he gets help.

7. Transableists. It’s a real mental illness. People put acid in their eyes and get limbs amputated.

8. I couldn’t read more than a few paragraphs, revolting stuff! Stop the planet I want to get off!

9. Everyone involved in this needs to be sectioned. What the absolute fuck.

10. And the editor who came up with the headline didn’t think any other part of the story was more shocking than the benefit fraud bit.

    Makes you wonder what kind of life they lead if the other bits of the story didn’t stand out to them.

11. >The court heard that Gustavson advertised for someone to assist him in becoming a eunuch on a gay dating app before offering Byrnes, an escort, £500 for carrying out the procedure.

    Is it just me, or is £500 a ludicrously low price to try and tempt someone to do unnecessary, dangerous ‘surgery’ on you? I’d not be risking a murder charge for 500 quid.

    This story is absolutely wild and just gets weirder as you read.

12. This is absolutely mental. It’s time to log off for the night.

13. Hope he doesn’t try to claim some kind of compo.

    He won’t have a leg to stand on.

14. “And this year’s National Journalism Award winner in our new category, ‘Egregiously Burying the Lede’..:”

15. People pay to watch people cut off their penis and nipples? I’ve heard it all now. Folks can’t watch Netflix like a normal person.

16. Consensualy cutting each others knackers off for enjoyment is normal?

    But cut your leg off to fiddle benefits?

17. A very early contender for most bizarre article of 2024.

    “I tried to do some surgery [and it is] a little bit more than a circumcision.” 🤣

18. If you have a fetish for removing your dick and balls don’t you then defeat the point of having a fetish in the first place once it’s gone?

19. OP is right headline is an odd choice.

    What on earth have I just read?

20. Just ignoring the wild headline, I wonder what the sentencing will be like

21. > The court heard that Byrnes, from Tottenham, north London, was filmed cutting off Gustavson’s penis with a kitchen knife and saying: “Well that’s one off the bucket list.”

    But anyway, back to the disability benefits.