The croc expert dog rapist had already shocked the world with his appalling crimes. But what he told psychologists behind bars is even worse. Now their horrifying reports can finally be revealed

EXCLUSIVE

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

A zoologist who filmed himself raping and torturing dogs has revealed he stripped naked, rolled in the mud and had sex with his own pets for the first time after a roaring fight with his ex-wife, psychological reports have revealed.

British crocodile expert Adam Britton, 53, was sentenced to 10 years behind bars by the Northern Territory Supreme Court in August after pleading guilty to 63 charges of bestiality, animal cruelty and possession of child abuse material.

He removed more than 42 dogs from Gumtree Australia over a two-year period for the sole purpose of torturing them to death on camera, but told the previous owners that their beloved pets were alive and thriving.

In 2022, police raided the McMinns Lagoon estate, near Darwin, which he shared with his biologist ex-wife, Erin, who spent a lot of time away for work and had no idea what he was doing.

Now Daily Mail Australia has obtained extensive psychological reports that shed light on his childhood sexual assault, the complete breakdown of his marriage, his descent into zoosadism and the relief he felt when police caught him.

They also reveal his life behind bars – what Erin said when he visited him in custody, her parents’ fortnightly visits, his mother’s letters in England, the blow to the head on Boxing Day and prisoners throwing rocks at him.

The reports, presented to the court ahead of his sentencing, were written by forensic psychologists between January and July, based on hours of conversations with Britton.

Adam Britton’s ex-wife Erin broke her silence on an episode of 60 Minutes (pictured)

I wanted to be a horse…

Britton told experts that he was particularly interested in animals from the age of six, but his interest intensified at the age of 13 when he was sexually assaulted by an 18-year-old boy during a school trip to France.

‘I spent the whole journey back [from France] hate people,” he told psychologists.

‘All I can remember is that I didn’t want to be human anymore. I wanted to be an animal. I wanted to get away from it all.”

As a young boy he found people ‘disgusting’ and wanted to become an animal.

‘I wanted to be an animal. I wanted to turn into a horse. I went horse riding every week. I fell in love with horses… It became this mantra: “I want to be a horse,” he said.

“It seems crazy to talk about it, but there I was.”

He would sneak into the horse paddocks near his parents’ house to hug them and eat their hair and saliva.

‘I thought that would fit into my body and that I would become a horse. During my training on DNA I had not yet gotten that far. This is what I wanted,” he said.

Part of his attraction to animals, and especially to feces, was related to the disgust he had for his own body.

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

The breakdown of the marriage

Britton met Erin in 2001 while working at a crocodile park in the Northern Territory. He had moved from Britain to take up the offer and it was his dream job.

“I was on cloud nine,” he said.

She was a volunteer at the park. They didn’t click right away, but they discovered they had a shared passion for animals and nature conservation. They married in 2004, but the relationship deteriorated over the next decade.

A core problem, according to reports, was his lack of sexual interest in people and his limited experience with romantic relationships due to his consuming attraction to animals.

Eventually the couple had an argument, slept in separate beds and spent long periods of time apart.

In 2014, Britton said he had suffered a depressive episode due to his relationship problems, financial problems and the recent death of his father – when he and Erin had a major argument.

She got into the car and drove away.

He told experts: ‘I went outside, took off my clothes, jumped into this muddy puddle and started rolling around in it. As if I wanted to be an animal.’

When his two Swiss Shepherds ran over to see what he was doing, they unknowingly started performing sex acts on him. Britton said he felt something “click” in his head and liked the idea of ​​himself as an animal.

Although he initially hated himself, he did it again a few months later and eventually integrated bestiality into his daily life while his ex-wife was away.

Adam Britton and his ex-wife Erin are pictured together on their wedding day

Britton also repeatedly raped his Swiss Shepherds, Ursa and Bolt (pictured). They now live with Erin’s parents

Animal cruelty

Britton joined groups on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app, to meet other crazy perverts like him. Before that, he felt like he was the only person in the world with morbid fantasies about animals.

He ran two Telegram accounts between 2020 and 2022 under the names ‘Monster’ and ‘Cerberus’ – the latter being a three-headed dog in Greek mythology.

During these conversations, he spoke freely about his disturbing bestiality fantasies that began when he was a school-age boy growing up in England.

One conversation took place between August and December 2021, with a Telegram user named “Gorvaged” who Britton described as a “good friend” because of their shared obsession.

“I remember being sadistic towards small animals when I was maybe seven or eight, and I suppressed it, but it didn’t really start to come out in my fantasies again until I was in my 20s and 30s,” Britton said, under the pseudonym ‘Monster’.

Those conversations formed much of the evidence against him by prosecutors, but Britton told experts those messages had been “misinterpreted.”

‘I came up with this character Monster. I played this character. I wouldn’t use the punctuation correctly, which I would never do. “I would use ‘f**k’, I would play this character, whatever the other people wanted,” he said.

“I was trying to impress these people and excite them. As a child I had no interest in being sadistic towards animals. I loved animals. I loved them much more than people.”

He said other users would tell him to harm dogs, and he did so because he “wanted to help people,” and one user in particular threatened to publish his personal information on the Internet.

During sentencing, NT Chief Justice Michael Grant found no evidence of blackmail. Prosecutors told the court that the images of Britton torturing dogs were partly so disturbing because of the “sheer joy” he seemed to take from the ordeal.

Pictured: A Telegram conversation Britton had with a like-minded person

Pictured: A mock-up of a conversation Britton had with Telegram user Gorvaged in 2021

Britton told the psychologist that he tortured and killed dogs to keep the Telegram user happy.

‘I don’t like letting people down. And I wasn’t going to let this man down, so I ended up doing what he wanted me to do,” he said.

“Basically, I ended up destroying everything I ever stood for.”

During his two-year killing spree, one puppy escaped his clutches and ran off into the bush, while another somehow managed to get away and most likely survived.

Britton saw these escapes as “failures” and told his friends online that the escaped dogs had died to “save face.”

“I was interested in talking to people about their sexual arousal and sexual feelings towards animals and what made them interested in that and why… I went to Telegram to talk about that,” he said.

“I got sidetracked and was basically trying to keep people happy. I think the first thing they asked me was, “Do you have any content?”, “Well, have you created any content?” “Yeah, I made some stuff with my dogs?” “Can we see it?”.

“I did it to keep him happy… I think that was the driver, that sexual curiosity with it was the driver. You don’t realize what’s happening until you’re actually there, and now you’re watching videos of animal torture.”

He said the abuse got to the point where he thought about jumping into the saltwater crocodile enclosure on his property and taking his own life, and he felt relieved when he was arrested.

‘[One of the overriding feelings I had after my arrest was, “Thank f*** this is all over”. The silver lining for all this was that this was over,’ he said.

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 

Pictured is the now abandoned compound where Britton carried out his obscene acts

Erin’s visit

Britton told psychologists that his then-wife, Erin, visited him once in prison shortly after his arrest in 2022.

He said: ‘She came in to see me at the prison and she was obviously extremely upset. She couldn’t understand why I’d done any of this stuff.’

According to Britton, she said: ‘I could have accepted the zoophile’ … I can’t accept the animal cruelty.’

He added: ‘She was at the point where she said, “I want to support you. I need to support you during this”. 

‘There was no immediate desire to break things up. I was fairly pessimistic that the relationship was going to last very long.’

He believes she went away and spoke to some friends who told her to leave the relationship.

On August 10, 2023, she said ‘I don’t want to talk to you anymore’ and ended their marriage. 

‘I told her I loved her, she said, “No, you’re not allowed to say you love me anymore”. We haven’t talked since. She doesn’t want people to mention my name to her anymore. 

‘She doesn’t want my in-laws to tell me any news about what’s happening with her at all … It has to be said my initial reaction was great sadness followed by relief. Almost like a weight lifted off my shoulders.’

Britton said his relationship ‘contributed to what happened to me’.

He said Erin’s parents visited him every fortnight. Daily Mail Australia previously revealed they did see him behind bars, but it is understood they stopped once they learned the true extent of his abuse against animals.

Adam Britton is pictured (right) at his McMinns Lagoon property with Erin’s parents, Barbara and Leslie

Life behind bars…

Britton told experts the negative media coverage of his crimes meant many of his friends stopped speaking to him.

He receives emails from his mother, his sister has ceased contact, his best friend – a priest in Scotland – stopped contacting him, and inmates throw stones at him.

One prisoner thought Britton was a paedophile and punched him twice in the head on Boxing Day in 2022.

Britton was charged with possession of child abuse material but psychologists found that he was not sexually interested in children. Telegram users sent him the material, but he didn’t solicit more.

One of his biggest issues in jail is the boredom, he said. He was denied access to various books and magazines because they contain pictures of animals, and is confined to his cell most of the time.

In October 2023, there were reports that a collection of confiscated multiple magazines, books, stamps, drawings, newspaper clippings articles containing images of animals were found in his cell.

He told experts: ‘I basically just torpedoed my entire life. My reputation. I’m not sure that I can rescue anything when I get out of here.’

Britton also said he would like to atone for his actions, eventually, by helping animals. 

Justice Grant banned him from owning a mammal for the remainder of his natural life.