'Sadistic' Married British crocodile expert admits raping and torturing more than 42 dogs in Australian animal shelter
26 September 2023, 10:32 | Updated: 26 September 2023, 10:58
A renowned British crocodile expert has admitted raping and torturing dogs and puppies at his Australian animal shelter.
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Adam Britton, 51, began offending in 2014, indulging his ‘sadistic sexual interest’ in animals. He would torture dogs until almost all of them died, posting videos of the incidents online, where he also accessed child abuse material.
Britton, who worked on BBC and National Geographic productions, will be sentenced at a later date after admitting 60 charges of animal cruelty and child abuse offences.
He tortured and sexually exploited more than 42 dogs until his arrest in April 2022. 39 of the dogs died.
The married zoologist sexually abused his own pets, Ursa and Bolt, for nearly a decade before taking to Gumtree Australia to find more dogs to torture and kill at his rural estate at McMinns Lagoon on the northern tip of Australia.
He filmed himself torturing the animals in his self-styled ‘torture room’ - a shipping container fitted with recording equipment.
At the Supreme Court of Australia’s Northern Territory yesterday, Chief Justice Michael Grant described his crimes as so ‘grotesque’ that public and even security staff were told to leave the courtroom before prosecutors outlined the facts.
Many of the details are too gruesome to be published.
His pets Ursa and Bolt which he abused had their own Instagram page, set up by Britton.
He also took in dogs from pet owners that he acquired from Gumtree - often people giving them away due to work or travel commitments.
In one instance, he sent pictures of a large brown dog to the owners, saying it was ‘settling in well,’ when in reality the dog had already been “sexually exploited, tortured and killed,” prosecutors said.
Britton, who grew up in West Yorkshire in the UK before moving to Australia 20 years ago, would share videos and images of himself sexually exploiting the dogs on online forums under pseudonyms.
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He used Telegram to engage with ‘like-minded people’ and sent images and recordings of the abuse, even discussing his ‘kill count’.
One of his videos was passed to police , who arrested him in April 2022.
He will be sentenced in December.
There is no suggestion his wife Erin knew anything about her husband’s crimes. She appears to have dropped his surname.
She is reportedly expected to be on expeditions for the nest six months and traces of her husband and former business partner have been removed from her online bio.
