WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
A disgraced crocodile expert who filmed himself torturing, raping and murdering 42 dogs moved behind a screen during sentencing to block himself from hate-filled gaze of court watchers.
Adam Robert Corden Britton, 53, was sentenced in the Northern Territory Supreme Court on Thursday to 10 years and five months behind bars, with a non-parole period of six years, backdated to his April 2022 arrest.
Britton, who was born in the UK but moved to Darwin to pursue a career as a zoologist in the 1990s, had pleaded guilty to 63 charges relating to animal abuse, bestiality, and for the possession of child exploitation material.
He sourced the dogs from Gumtree Australia over a two-year period for the sole purpose of torturing the animals to death on camera, but would tell the former owners their beloved pets were enjoying their new home.
According to court documents, the pets were usually dead by the time these updates were sent. Most of the dogs he acquired were horrifically abused and murdered within a few days of him gaining ownership.
During sentencing, Chief Justice Michael Grant told Britton: ‘Your depravity falls outside any ordinary human conception.’
Animal lovers flew to Darwin from all over Australia to watch the sentencing, but Britton did receive some support. His mother wrote a character reference for the court, as did two former colleagues.
Britton also tendered a short, hand-written apology detailing his struggles with ‘a rare paraphilic disorder’ – intense sexual behaviours that involve inanimate objects, children, or non-consenting adults – for which he was too ashamed to seek help.
Adam Britton was sentenced to 10 years and five months in jail with a non-parole period of six years, backdated to his April 2022 arrest
Adam Britton wrote a grovelling apology for harming the animals, which was tendered to the court (pictured)
The apology read: ‘I take full responsibility for the demeaning crimes I perpetrated on dogs. I deeply regret pain and trauma that I caused to innocent animals, and consequently to my family, friends and members of the community I affected.
‘I let you all down, and I’m truly sorry.
‘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.’
Britton said he was determined to seek long-term treatment to prove he was better than his horrific crimes, and to ‘find a path towards redemption’.
‘Please give my family the space they deserve to heal. They were not aware or involved in any way,’ he added.
Prior to his sentence being handed down, there was a brief adjournment.
When court resumed, onlookers said Britton had intentionally moved his chair so that he was behind a computer screen so those sitting in the public gallery couldn’t see him.
Members of the public leaned forward so he could not escape their hate-filled gazes.
Britton (pictured left, with his wife Erin) once hosted Sir David Attenborough (right). There is no suggestion whatsoever that his wife knew about his offending
Pictured: Adam Britton, when he was a respected academic and zoologist
When the judge started reading his sentence, Britton grabbed a tissue. Some members of the public scoffed, while others had to leave the court because they were too upset by Britton’s crimes.
Britton, who would post horrific footage of animal abuse on his Telegram channel under the pseudonym ‘Cerberus’, managed to keep his twisted double life secret from his wife Erin for years.
He would use the Telegram account to engage with ‘like-minded people‘, and another which was used to disseminate images and recordings of the abuse.
Erin, a wildlife ranger and biologist who once met Prince Harry and helped him catch a crocodile, has since reportedly changed her name. There is no suggestion that Erin knew anything of her husband’s crimes.
Britton’s arrest came just a month after he uploaded a video called ‘1B***h9pups’ to an abuse website, in March 2022.
The court heard on Thursday that Britton bought the dog and her nine puppies for $150, for the sole purpose of torturing the animals to death at a site called Shano’s Pit near his McMinns Lagoon home.
He wanted it to be the best known ‘shock video’ on the internet, but all it did was anger internet users who were disgusted with the obscene levels of violence and scoured the video looking for clues to unmask the perpetrator.
Pictured: A mock-up of a Telegram conversation Britton had with a user
Pictured: A stock image of a dog wearing an orange City of Darwin leash – like the one the internet sleuth spotted in Britton’s abuse video
Britton was arrested in April 2022 after an anonymous internet user noticed a female dog in one of his online videos was wearing an orange City of Darwin leash with the slogan, ‘great pets start with you’.
The clue enabled authorities to track who had adopted the dog.
Justice Grant said it was ‘manifestly clear’ that Britton derived ‘perverse pleasure and excitement from the suffering of these animals’, as evident with his interactions with others in Telegram.
‘Your conduct on each of those occasions involved a degree of depravity and reprehensibility which falls entirely outside any ordinary human conception and comprehension,’ the judge said.
Despite the hand-written apology, the judge was not satisfied that Britton was genuinely remorseful, and accepted the Crown’s view that Britton’s prominent diagnosis was zoosadism (sexual pleasure derived from cruelty to animals).
‘You used weapons extensively in the course of your activity,’ Justice Grant said.
‘As the Crown has submitted, the sheer and unalloyed pleasure that you derive from inflicting this torture is sickeningly evident.’
In 2022, new legislation was introduced in the NT increasing penalties for animal cruelty from a maximum of two years to five years, but Britton’s offending predated the reforms.
He was also banned from owning a mammal for the rest of his natural life.
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