The former wife and former business partner of a renowned British zoologist now convicted of bestiality is speaking out months after the man was sentenced.
Adam Britton, 53, was sentenced in August in an Australian court to more than a decade behind bars after pleading guilty to 56 charges of bestiality and animal cruelty, the BBC reported at the time. Britton also admitted to four counts of accessing material depicting child abuse, per the outlet.
Now, his ex-wife is speaking out about the horrors of learning about his crimes and the numerous questions that arose for her following his arrest in 2022.
The woman, identified only by her first name Erin, spoke with 60 Minutes Australia, saying, “I cannot comprehend still how somebody can be so depraved, so evil. He’s just destroyed my entire life.”
In one part of the show, Erin is seen returning to her former home in the outskirts of the Australian city of Darwin, where she lived with Britton, and where authorities believe he filmed the torture of the dogs, per 60 Minutes Australia.
The home was raided early in the morning of April 22, 2022, per the show, when Erin way away on a work trip, she said.
Erin only learned about her then-husband’s crimes when she spoke with his lawyer, who showed her screenshots of his abuse.
“When she told me bestiality, my brain was like ‘Denial, no,’ and hearing that information is the most awful thing you could ever hear about your partner,” she recalled. “It was so shocking, and I felt sick.”
She mentioned on the show that at the time he was arrested, the couple had been living in separate rooms in their home and were not involved romantically for years.
Britton’s abuse spanned several decades while he worked with animals around the world, all the while harboring “sadistic sexual interest” in them, the BBC reported in August, citing unspecified court documents.
Evidence generated during the investigation also revealed he had been sharing videos of his animal torture in online forums, where he claimed he loved hurting dogs and that he began molesting horses at the age of 13, per the court documents reported on by the publication.
The known count Britton’s victims is 39 dogs that he tortured to death, according to the aforementioned court documents. He accessed the dogs by connecting online with people giving away their pets, before taking custody of the pets and abusing them in a “torture room” he built, which was equipped with recording devices, per the BBC’s report.
An investigator who spoke with the Australian show said they found several kinds of weapons that Britton used in his torture, including knives, tools, wooden objects and saws.
In a letter he allegedly wrote to Erin while awaiting his sentencing, Britton asked Erin to send books about dog domestication, she says in the show, sharing a glimpse of one of the letters.
“This messes with my head,” she mentioned on the show. “Really, really disturbing.”
Meanwhile, at his sentencing in August, Britton said he “deeply regret[s]” his actions, the BBC reported.
