BALTIMORE - Bondage Webmaster Glenn Marcus had his website SlaveSpace shut down by the U.S. Department of Justice after being convicted of "forced labor" and "sex-trafficking" charges for his sadistic sexual encounters with one of his so-called slaves.
On March 5, a judge found Marcus guilty of "sex trafficking" and "forced labor," but Marcus was found not guilty of distributing obscene materials. His attorneys responded by filing a motion asking for a new trial or acquittal on technical grounds, including that the sex-trafficking law was not meant to apply to consensual BDSM activities.
On May 17, U.S. District Judge Allyne Ross ruled that the conviction remains intact.
SlaveSpace.com relied on a novel business model: finding sex slaves on the Internet, tying them up, whipping them, and posting online photographs of the process. Membership to SlaveSpace started at $20 for 30 days of access.
In 1998, a woman named Jodi (referred to in court documents by her first name only) began researching BDSM — bondage, dominance/discipline, submission/sadism, and masochism — and found Marcus in an AOL chat room. He went by the screenname "GMYourGod" and demanded absolute obedience.
Later that year, Jodi traveled to Maryland to meet Marcus and a fellow sex slave named Joanna. He whipped Jodi, with her consent, and carved the word "slave" on her stomach with a knife. The next month, she sent a petition to Marcus saying in part: "I am begging to serve you Sir, completely, with no limitations."
In January 1999, Jodi moved to Maryland to live with Joanna, and Marcus regularly visited them from his home on Long Island. Occasionally the BDSM/sex sessions became severe: Marcus once burned Jodi with cigarettes all over her body. He put a Whiffle ball in her mouth and tried to sew her lips shut with surgical needles. Other encounters were too graphic to be described fully to the media.
Many of these incidents were photographed and uploaded to SlaveSpace, which Jodi spent much of her time updating, including writing diaries for the site. She referred to herself as "pooch" or "poochie" and wrote lengthy, rambling essays indicating, "I need to serve Him, to please Him. I not only want to, I need to. I feel this so deeply, every single part of me feels this."
At some point in August 2001, Jodi and Marcus became estranged; but, according to Jodi, she felt unable to escape the relationship because she was afraid of him. She later acknowledged staying in contact with him through 2003, even going camping with him.
After Marcus would not remove the photos from the Internet (he claimed to have a valid model release), Jodi contacted the FBI. Federal prosecutors charged Marcus with sex trafficking, forced labor, and dissemination of obscene materials through an interactive computer service.
For the jury, consent was key: Did Jodi agree to the sadistic activities at the time? A Village Voice article indicated: "It's possible that she regretted her participation and re-wrote her role into an unwilling victim, but it's equally likely that Marcus lost touch with reality, believed he actually owned her, and behaved accordingly."
Marcus, 53, is free until his June 5 sentencing, at which time he could face 30 years to life in prison.
