Horrific and deeply disturbing details were revealed at the sentencing hearing for Adam Britton, a former zoologist and crocodile expert who appeared on BBC and Nat Geo programs alongside David Attenborough and others, revealing dozens of instances of abusing dogs across an 18-month span.
WARNING: This story contains graphic details of animal cruelty and abuse.
The renowned zoologist, who received praise for his work on various nature programs over the years, has been sentenced to 10 years and five months in prison for the rape, torture and killing of many dogs, as reported by Sky News.
He was also banned for life from purchasing any animals or having them on his property, per local media, and will not be eligible for parole for six years, per Australia’s ABC. His sentence was backdated to his April 2022 arrest. At that time, police also found 15 files with child abuse material.
Thursday’s sentencing comes after Britton pleaded guilty to 56 charges of bestiality and animal cruelty at the Supreme Court in the Northern Territory in September 2023.
Chief Justice Michael Grant excused court officers during his sentencing remarks due to the details of Britton’s offenses, saying they might cause “nervous shock or some other adverse psychological reactions.”
“Although I’m loathe to do so, given the gross depravity and perversity of your actions,” Grant said to Britton in the courtroom. “it is necessary for the purpose of sentencing you to provide some generally representative detail and description of the offending conduct.”
Those crimes, as detailed in court, were described by Grant as “grotesque” and “unspeakable.” They included the torture and sexual exploitation of 42 dogs, and the deaths of 39 dogs in a shipping container he dubbed his “torture room” on his property. He reportedly filmed many of his crimes there.
The crimes cited took place in an 18-month span from 2020 and 2022, and specifically related to dogs Britton acquired through Australia’s Gumtree online marketplace. Later evidence suggested this was not the entirety of his crimes.
Grant further explained that Britton particularly targeted people who posted that they were reluctantly having to part with beloved pets due to work or travel obligations. He promised to give people’s pets a “good home.”
“He often built a rapport with the dog owners in negotiating taking custody of their animals,” said prosecutor Marty Aust in September, per Sky News. At that time, Britton was described in court as having a “sadistic sexual interest” in dogs.
In his sentencing, Justice Grant said, “You took photographs of the dogs prior to torturing and killing them, and subsequently sent those photographs to the former owners as part of communicating false narratives that the dogs were thriving in their new environment.”
At the same time, per ABC, Britton was sharing his kill count and uploading videos recorded of his murders under the psesudonyms ‘Monster’ and ‘Cerberus’ to the messenger service Telegram. Grant said it was clear Britton derived “perverse pleasure and excitement from the suffering of these animals.”
In one chatroom, per court documents seen by The BBC, Britton admitted, “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 admitted to molesting horses as young as 13 years old.
He purportedly abused his own pets, and acquired pets, over the last decade, writing in another chat, “My own dogs are family and I have limits. I only badly mistreat other dogs… I have no emotional bond to them, they are toys pure and simple.”
Britton expressed remorse in a letter written while he was in prison, and read in court by his attorney. In it, he took “full responsibility” for his “demeaning” crimes and wrote, “I deeply regret the pain and trauma that I caused innocent families and consequently to my family, friends and members of the community affected.”
“I let you all down. I’m truly sorry,” his letter continued. “I now acknowledge that I’ve been fighting a rare paraphilic disorder for much of my life. And that shame and fear prevented me from seeking the proper help I needed.”
He went on to ask his family be given space to “heal,” emphasizing, “They were not aware or involved in any way.” As for himself, Britton vowed to seek “long-term treatment.”
Justice Grant, however, was not moved by the letter, nor did he believe Britton showed any genuine remorse, per ABC. He instead accepted the prosecution’s perceived diagnosis of zoosadism.
Zoosadism is defined by the American Psychological Association as “a paraphilia (abnormal sexual desire) in which sexual arousal and satisfaction are obtained from torturing a nonhuman animal. This may occur during direct sexual contact with the animal, or the person may masturbate later, using memories of the event as masturbatory fantasies.”
“Your conduct on each of those occasions involved a degree of depravity and reprehensibility which falls entirely outside any ordinary human conception and comprehension,” said Justice Grant in his sentencing statement. “I also have no doubt that you would have continued with this conduct had you not been arrested by police.”
With time already served, Britton could first be eligible for parole in April 2028.
