NT crocodile expert Adam Britton jailed for more than 10 years for ‘grotesque’ animal cruelty and torture
A prominent crocodile expert and Charles Darwin University academic has been jailed for more than 10 years over his “grotesque” depravity and cruelty in torturing and killing dozens of dogs.
Adam Robert Corden Britton was sentenced in Northern Territory supreme court on Thursday, having previously pleaded guilty to 56 offences related to the torture and sexual exploitation of more than 42 dogs on his rural property.
Chief justice Michael Grant said Britton showed “grotesque” depravity in killing dozens of dogs.
“Your motivations were of the basest and most perverse kind … Each instance is an offence with the maximum penalty … I am unable to conceive of anything worse.”
Britton began his offending in 2014 and continued until his arrest in April 2022 after one of the videos of his offending, which he had shared online, was anonymously provided to Northern Territory animal welfare authorities.
Britton was required to be sentenced under the territory’s animal protection laws at the time of his offending, which had a maximum of two years’ jail for aggravated cruelty with intent to cause animal death.
The territory has since increased the maximum sentence to five years.
“Society views violence and cruelty to animals as an abhorrent crime towards a powerless and innocent victim. There is legitimate disgust and condemnation,” Grant said.
Grant warned the public gallery that he would have to describe Britton’s offending that included “grotesque cruelty toward animals”.
“Your depravity falls outside any ordinary human conception,” Grant told Britton.
Members of the public gallery at times sobbed and gasped as the details of Britton’s extensive and violent offending, resulting in the deaths of 39 dogs, including nine puppies, were read out.
Britton stood in the dock wearing a black suit with grey shirt and did not visibly react to Grant’s sentencing remarks.
Grant said Britton’s torture and killings were planned, premeditated and would not have stopped unless arrested.
“The suffering of these animals was indescribable,” Grant said.
Animal advocates had earlier demonstrated outside court, holding signs labelling Britton a “zoosadist” who should face the death penalty.
The agreed facts stated Britton extensively filmed his offending and shared some of the videos to others online while encouraging them to commit similar offences and offering advice on how to do so.
“Your sheer and unalloyed pleasure is sickeningly evident from the recorded material,” Grant said.
Britton was also sentenced for possessing and transmitting “the worst category” of child sexual abuse material.
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Grant said Britton had a lifelong deviant sexual attraction to animals and escalated to “zoosadism”, involving him taking pleasure in harming animals, in the two years before his arrest.
Two psychiatrists found Britton had a paraphilic disorder but was aware his actions were wrong.
Britton wrote a letter to the court taking responsibility for his actions and apologising for the demeaning pain and trauma he caused to the dogs.
“No amount of words can convey how sorry and ashamed I am, nor undo what I did,” Britton wrote.
As well as torturing his own dogs, Britton sourced other canines off Gumtree Australia from unsuspecting owners in the Darwin region.
The former academic, who once hosted broadcaster and biologist David Attenborough, would share videos and images of himself sexually exploiting the dogs on online forums under pseudonyms.
Britton has been remanded in custody since his arrest.
Britton was a prominent NT crocodile expert and a senior researcher at CDU.
None of his offending is alleged to have been against the reptiles.
Britton was sentenced to 10 years and five months with a non-parole period of six years, backdated to his April 2022 arrest.
Grant ordered that Britton be banned from owning or having on his property mammal-type animals for the term of his natural life.
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