A man in Oklahoma has been sentenced to more than 12 years behind bars for illegally removing a volunteer's testicles and then allegedly unveiling a plan to eat them.
Bob Lee Allen, 54, was jailed on Tuesday, while his husband Thomas Evans Gates, 42, who handed tools to Allen during a castration surgery, was released on time served after admitting to misdemeanour maiming last month.
The gay couple was charged last year for castrating a then-28-year-old victim who reportedly wanted to be a eunuch and had flown from Virginia to get the procedure after contacting Allen via the now-defunct castration forum Eunuch Maker.
The victim, whose name was not revealed, was cited by US media outlets as saying that Allen told him he had 15 years of experience performing gender reassignment surgeries and had six clients lined up for the procedure.
The 28-year-old argued that the couple drove him to their cabin in the remote southeast Oklahoma woods before performing the two-hour surgery that took place on 12 October 2020. During the procedure, the victim was purportedly awake, as he had only received local anesthetic in and around his genitalia.
After the procedure wrapped up, Allen told the volunteer that "he was going to consume the parts and laughed and said that he was a cannibal", allegations the 54-year-old denies, according to the newspaper The Oklahoman.
The couple finally decided the man needed medical care because of bleeding so they dropped him off at the McAlester Regional Health Centre, where he told the staff about what had happened to him.