Thankfully, prosecutors in the case of Robert Berndt did not submit video evidence as part of their court filing.<\/p>\n
The Philadelphia man was sentenced to 38 months in federal prison<\/a> this week for his role in a scheme to pay people in Indonesia to torture and sexually abuse monkeys on camera<\/a>.<\/p>\n Berndt, 43, was a part of an online chat group in which people discussed and shared videos of tortured animals, according to Department of Justice court filings. Among the chat\u2019s participants, Berndt\u2019s \u201cfocus on the most grotesque forms of torture was unsurpassed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOver and over again, Berndt expressed a desire for more extreme torture that resulted in more pain, experienced over a longer period of time,\u201d prosecutors told the judge.<\/p>\n Messages from the chat are included in DOJ\u2019s sentencing memo, and show Berndt\u2019s enthusiasm over a video of a rat burning. Despite calling the footage \u201cawesome,\u201d he had suggestions on how to make the torture even crueler. <\/p>\n \u201cLike I want to see them maimed and miserable,\u201d Berndt wrote under the alias Requiem Rhythm. \u201cKilling them is great, of course, but it puts an end to it while I want them to suffer longer.\u201d <\/p>\n When the group discussed monkeys, Berndt expressed his desire for the tormentors to inflict more pain and focus on the primates\u2019 genitalia.<\/p>\n Berndt and his chat-mates actively commissioned footage of the torture. They\u2019d contact so-called videographers, usually in Indonesia, who would torture monkeys following specific requests \u2014 some for as little as $10 a video. <\/p>\n The monkeys in videos reviewed by DOJ were long-tailed macaques, which are native to Southeast Asia. <\/p>\n Berndt and a co-conspirator even discussed the possibility of buying a baby monkey that was advertised for sale, DOJ said in court filings. The two daydreamed about meeting up to torture the youngster together in real life. <\/p>\n \u201cHahah you would be welcome to visit and hang out,\u201d Berndt said in a message to his co-conspirator, according to court records. \u201cLike watching surgical theater.\u201d<\/p>\n Prosecutors from DOJ\u2019s Environment and Natural Resources Division <\/a>indicted Berndt in April and he pleaded guilty in May to a felony count of conspiring to create and distribute in videos depicting animal crush videos, the legal term for causing a non-human mammal serious bodily injury. Five other co-conspirators from the chat group were indicted, at least two <\/a>of whom were sentenced<\/a> to serve time in prison. <\/p>\n Berndt\u2019s attorney and DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Ahead of his sentencing, Berndt\u2019s family members pleaded with the judge to not exceed the sentencing guidelines. which provide a range of 37 to 46 months of imprisonment. <\/p>\n The letters and Berndt\u2019s attorney\u2019s sentencing memo paint a picture of a man who loved animals and was dependable whenever his loved ones needed him in the past. But Berndt changed following a sexual assault and opioid addiction, the filings say. <\/p>\n Family members say that Berndt became manic and treated those who loved him as enemies. He became isolated, paranoid, and drank alcohol excessively. <\/p>\n By 2021, most of Berndt\u2019s social interactions were through online chat rooms, according to his attorney\u2019s memo. He sought the approval of his new friends by escalating his rhetoric.<\/p>\n \u201cHis acceptance and sense of validation with the group seemed to increase when he said more and more violent and troubling things,\u201d his attorney told the judge.<\/p>\n But DOJ prosecutors rebuffed the idea that Berndt was merely a follower, and note that he only stopped his engagement in the groups after he was contacted by law enforcement in 2024. <\/p>\n \u201cBerndt was personally responsible for creating some of the groups, establishing the rules of behavior within the groups, and then enforcing those rules after perceived violations,\u201d prosecutors said in a sentencing memo. <\/p>\n Judge Edmund Sargus Jr., of the Southern District of Ohio, sentenced Berndt to 38 months of imprisonment followed by three years of probation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thankfully, prosecutors in the case of Robert Berndt did not submit video evidence as part of their court…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":458337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,209613,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-458336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-animal-cruelty-videos-monkeys-doj-sentence-philadelphia","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115747754585103583","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}