Adam Britton: NT zoologist raped dozens of puppies and tortured 39 dogs to death before telling owners their pets were ‘settling in well’ at his shelter
A leading Northern Territory crocodile expert and Charles Darwin University academic has pleaded guilty to a string of animal cruelty charges, including rape and torture of dogs.
Adam Robert Corden Britton, 51, began his offending in 2014 by torturing and sexually exploiting more than 42 dogs until his arrest in April 2022.
Britton stood calmly as he pleaded guilty to all 56 charges in the NT Supreme Court on Monday.
He also pleaded guilty to four counts of accessing and transmitting child pornography.
Adam Robert Corden Britton, 51, began his offending in 2014 and tortured and sexually exploited more than 42 dogs until his arrest in April 2022.
Britton stood calmly as he pleaded guilty to all 56 charges in the NT Supreme Court on Monday.
Before prosecutor Marty Aust read the agreed facts of the charges, Northern Territory Chief Justice Michael Grant urged the public gallery, security personnel and media to leave the court.
“These facts contain elements which can only be described as grotesque and perverse acts of cruelty, confronting and distressing and which, in my opinion, have the potential to cause nervous shock,” he said.
“Anyway, I’ll leave it up to you to decide, but the potential has been described.”
Details of the offense are too horrific to publish but resulted in the deaths of 39 dogs.
“The offender had a sadistic sexual interest in animals and particularly dogs,” Mr Aust said.
As well as torturing his own dogs, Britton sourced other dogs on Gumtree from unsuspecting owners in the Darwin area.
“(He) often built relationships with dog owners during custody negotiations for their animals, many of whom had to reluctantly give up their pets due to travel or work commitments,” Mr. .Aust.
In one scenario, Britton sent a message to the owners of a large brown dog to reassure them that the animal was “settling in well.”
“Wolfe was relaxed, eating well and enjoying her new home,” the message read.
But unbeknownst to the previous owners, the dog had already been “sexually exploited, tortured and killed”, Mr Aust said.
Britton, a former academic who once hosted legendary broadcaster and biologist David Attenborough, shared videos and images of himself sexually exploiting dogs on online forums under pseudonyms.
Details of the offense are too horrific to publish but resulted in the deaths of 39 dogs.
A video was eventually sent to the NT Animal Protection Branch and passed to NT Police who arrested Britton in April 2022.
Since then, he has been placed in pre-trial detention.
Britton was a leading NT crocodile expert and a senior researcher at CDU.
None of his offenses would have been directed against reptiles.
His case is scheduled to return to court on Dec. 13 for sentencing submissions.
