A Morris County man was sentenced to four years in prison for conspiring to create and distribute videos showing torture and mutilation of monkeys, federal prosecutors announced.

Giancarlo Morelli, of Wharton, was involved with online groups dedicated to making and sharing what officials called “animal crush videos,” which depicted extreme violence and sexual abuse of the animals, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, which prosecuted the case.

“If you pay others to torture animals or to share images of that horrific abuse, you can expect to be held accountable as if you committed the torture firsthand,” said U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II for the Southern District of Ohio. “Today’s sentence shows our resolve to punish everyone who participates i

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