Three men have been jailed in Pennsylvania for forcing a teenager to help them have sex with several animals, including cows, goats, horses and dogs.
Matthew Brubaker, 31, Terry Wallace, 41, and Marc Measnikoff, 34, were all found guilty of having sex with at least 12 animals in Munson, Pennsylvania, after a "makeshift farm" was called to the attention of police last year.
A 16-year-old boy, allegedly forced by the men to assist in the animal abuse, told cops the men were having intercourse with the animals in a specially-designed V-shaped pen on a daily basis for "decades".
Gant Daily reports that the three men were sentenced to between 20 and 41 years for their crimes, as Judge Paul E Cherry described their actions as "one of the most disgusting, despicable courses of conduct I’ve ever seen".
Upon being arrested by police, the three were charged with 1,400 misdemeanour counts of sexual intercourse with an animal, summary counts of cruelty to animals, as well as misdemeanour counts of endangering the welfare of a child and corruption of minors.
It also emerged that the men had been forcing the 16-year-old boy who reported the incident to hold down the animals so they could carry out their horrific misdeeds; footage of these acts was recorded on camera.
District Attorney William A. Shaw said the videos "burned my corneas and will live with me the rest of my life", while at the time of their arrest, Shaw stated:
"This is an unpleasant topic, but the facts are that we received a report of folks having sexual intercourse with animals, farm animals. I've been doing this for over 20 years and this is probably the worse situation of this type of case that I've come across."
However, not everyone is happy with the sentence handed out to the three men.
Terry Wallace's attorney, Chris Pentz, said the sentence was excessive, noting that bestiality was still legal in seven different states around the United States, and claiming that if the men had killed 730 cows instead of sexually abusing them, the crime wouldn't have been "double-aggregated", as the attorney claimed.
Brubaker’s attorney Ryan Sayer insisted that the child, believed to be Wallace's son, was not involved in the acts and didn't hold the camera, but this just prompted Judge Cherry to ask why there had been a camera in the first place, questioning if the men had intended to sell the videos online.
All the same, Judge Cherry said that the sentence was doled out in line with the sheer number of cases involved and the nature of the offences. Clearfield County SPCA animal charity was called to the farm to care for the animals.
