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Adam Britton, a renowned zoologist, has confessed to 60 heinous crimes involving the rape, torture and killing of dogs. The 53-year-old now faces a potential sentence of up to 249 years in Australia.
The leading British crocodile expert confessed to bestiality and a plethora of animal sexual abuse charges filed against him in Australia in September last year.
His case shocked and angered animal rights activists and the public alike as the details of his disturbing actions came to light.
Britton has confessed to an interest in “zoo-sadism” and, in numerous online messages presented to the Northern Territory Supreme Court, he guided other people on how to perpetrate similar acts of abuse.
When Britton appeared for sentencing submissions recently, the court was told about the psychiatric condition called paraphilia that afflicted him.
Who is Adam Britton?
Born in 1972 as Adam Robert Corden Britton, he graduated from Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in 1987 and earned an Honours degree in Zoology from the University of Leeds in 1992.
Britton completed his PhD in Zoology from the University of Bristol in 1996.
He moved to Australia that same year and met his future wife, Erin, a wildlife ranger and biologist. The couple established a consultancy specialising in wild crocodiles.
Britton gained international recognition as a crocodile expert and collaborated with prominent figures like David Attenborough. He contributed to various documentaries and educational programs for the BBC and National Geographic.
He was a research associate at Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia, and appeared on the Discovery Channel programme “Animal Face-Off”, further cementing his reputation as a leading authority on crocodiles.
His career came to be overshadowed by his criminal activities after he confessed to a raft of charges involving the rape, torture, and killing of dogs, which he used to commit inside a shipping container dubbed the “torture room”.
What are the charges against him?
The Australian court has been told that Britton used to source rescue dogs on the online classifieds website Gumtree Australia, offering to rehome them at his expansive property near Darwin.
He would reportedly film himself torturing the animals and post the videos on online platforms using pseudonyms “Monster” and “Cerberus”. He would also allegedly access child abuse material on these platforms.
His disturbing actions led to the deaths of 39 dogs.
He has also pleaded guilty to four counts of accessing and transmitting child abuse material.
“I was talking with someone else about why I love to hurt dogs,” he wrote in a secret chat group. “I wasn’t sure at first, but now I live for it. I can’t stop myself hurting dogs.”
“I was sadistic as a child to animals, but I had repressed it. In the last few years I let it out again, and now I can’t stop. I don’t want to.”
He added a smiley.
Australian authorities were alerted to Britton’s activities by an anonymous person. They then launched “Operation Haine”, which resulted in a search warrant for Britton’s McMinns Lagoon home on Darwin’s outskirts. In the course of their inquiry, law enforcement uncovered unsettling footage shot by Britton revealing his acts of animal cruelty.
He was arrested in April 2022.
Britton’s lawyer — who has sought to remain anonymous due to the threats they have been receiving for representing Britton — recently presented the court with a fresh report on the zoologist’s “paraphilia”. It’s a psychological term to describe a condition characterised by intense sexual fantasies, urges, or behaviours involving atypical objects, situations, or individuals.
What happened at the latest hearing?
At the hearing on Thursday, Britton’s lawyer reportedly told the court about his “paraphilia” due to which the court was adjourned.
Before the hearing commenced, the Northern Territory Supreme Court judge Michael Grant asked his staff and animal rights activists to vacate the room due to the grotesque nature of the actions committed by Britton.
“This is a human being who has been afflicted by a condition since very early childhood,” Britton’s lawyer said. “It is not his fault that he had that.”
“This particular condition is exceptionally taboo in most societies and the court can, and I hope would, accept that that would have been a very difficult thing to grow up with and learn to manage into adulthood.”
The lead prosecutor, Marty Aust, however, said Britton derived “entrenched enjoyment” from his perverse sexual interest in animals.
“There was significant planning to the extent that it was quite a production, with multiple cameras, tripods, various recording equipment, production values, editing,” he told the court.
“If you watch that footage you will see the extreme pleasure and enjoyment that this man had in creating this and doing these acts. His sheer delight goes to the core of it … it’s difficult to read, it’s difficult to hear but to see it, really is something other.”
Mr Aust said that “much like any other human being who has a particular sexual interest” Britton was “able to rationally determine whether to act on that interest”.
“He has done so and then, with the incitement and the encouragement of other like-minded persons, he has offended in a way that’s almost beyond description in terms of its significant depravity,” he said.
Mr Aust said that even if Britton’s condition were treatable, “there remains a constant risk of its recurrence”.
At a hearing early this year, judge Grant had doubted whether any psychiatric evidence could diminish Britton’s moral responsibility for his actions.
“A serial killer can’t say, for example, ‘My moral culpability is reduced because I suffer from psychopathy’,” he said in February. “I just can’t see where the evidence is going here.”
Reaction to the charges against Britton
Britton’s sentencing was delayed for the third time after his lawyer submitted a fresh report to the judge. He will be back in court next month.
Former Northern Territory lawmaker Ross Bohlin said the sentencing delay was an “abuse of the judicial process”.
“It would be good to think today brought an end to this psychopathic level of abuse. Unfortunately, the adjournment will only continue the pain,” he said.
Protesting outside the courthouse recently, animal rights activists displayed signs demanding justice, including calls for the death penalty and “justice for the innocent victims of Adam Britton”.
“He’s got to be punished so people don’t think that animals are something that can be exploited and abused,” one protester said.
They realised the death penalty “isn’t going to happen”, the protester told the ABC, “but incarcerated forever would be my personal choice”.
