Adam Britton: Dog rapist who sexually abused and killed dozens of animals is jailed for 10 years

A crocodile expert who raped and killed dogs has been jailed for more than 10 years over his ‘grotesque’ depravity.

Adam Robert Corden Britton was sentenced in Darwin 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.

Britton, who was born in the UK, was sentenced to 10 years and five months with a non-parole period of six years, backdated to his April 2022 arrest.

Chief Justice Michael 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,’ Justice Grant told Britton.

Justice Grant also ordered Britton be banned from owning or having on his property mammal-type animals for the term of his natural life. 

Britton’s barrister, who has asked not to be named because she has been subject to personal abuse and threats for representing him, had argued a lifetime ban on all animal ownership was an ‘extreme measure’.

She argued Britton should be allowed to own or live with any creatures other than ‘mammals’ and the ban should not lifetime because of the ‘reasonable prospects of rehabilitation’. 

Adam Britton (pictured has been jailed for more than 10 years over his ‘grotesque’ depravity and cruelty towards over 2 dogs

Britton (centre) with his wife Erin (left) and David Attenborough (right) during filming for a BBC documentary

Members of the public gallery 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 Justice Grant’s sentencing remarks.

Britton began offending in 2014 and continued until his arrest in April 2022 after a video of his vile acts, which he had shared online, was anonymously provided to Northern Territory animal welfare authorities. 

The agreed facts stated Britton extensively filmed his offending in his so-called ‘torture room’ and shared videos online under pseudonyms while encouraging others to commit similar offences and offering ‘how to’ advice.

‘Your sheer and unalloyed pleasure is sickeningly evident from the recorded material,’ Justice Grant said.

As well as torturing his dogs that he had raised, Britton bought sought canines featured in Gumtree Australia ‘free to good home’ adverts from unsuspecting owners in the Darwin region.

Britton was also sentenced for possessing and transmitting ‘the worst category’ of child sexual abuse material. 

In 2016, Britton uploaded a photo of one of his dogs, Bolt, as a puppy (pictured)

The court heard Britton started abusing his dogs, Ursa and Bolt (pictured), in 2014

Britton was a prominent NT crocodile expert and a senior researcher at Charles Darwin University and in that capacity he once hosted world-famous broadcaster and biologist David Attenborough.

None of his offending was against the reptiles.

Earlier Britton’s barrister read the court an apology penned by her client.

‘I take full responsibility for the demeaning crimes that I perpetrated on dogs,’ Britton said.

‘I deeply regret the pain and trauma that I caused to innocent animals and consequently to my family, friends and members of the community that 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 ‘no amount of words can convey how sorry and ashamed I am, nor undo what I did’ but he was ‘determined to prove I am better than this’. 

‘That I will seek long term treatment and that I will find a path towards redemption,’ he said.

‘Please give my family the space they deserve to heal, they were not aware or involved in any way.’

Adam Britton (pictured) told a stranger on Telegram that he stopped trying to suppress his violent urges

Paraphilia is defined as having persistent and recurrent sexual interests, urges, fantasies, or behaviors of marked intensity involving objects, activities, or even situations that are atypical in nature.

Crown prosecutor Marty Aust argued for a lifetime ban on mammal ownership saying Britton’s paraphilia ‘appears to be treatable but ever present’. 

‘We would submit that your honour would be satisfied that really there is an ever present risk in this case for this offender,’ he said. 

Britton’s sentence was met with outrage by animal advocates.

Emma Hurst, an MP for the Animal Justice Party in NSW, slammed the sentence as ‘pathetically weak’.

‘These were horrific acts of animal cruelty,’ Ms Hurst said.

‘There is a well-researched link between violence towards animals and violence towards people. 

‘This man is a danger to other animals and the community. I am relieved to hear his sentence includes time behind bars – that’s where a man like this belongs – but it is not long enough.’