WARNING: Graphic content
A once-respected academic and zoologist sent a chilling message to a stranger about his obsession with raping and torturing dogs, confessing: ‘I can’t stop’.
Adam Britton, 52, pleaded guilty in the Darwin Supreme Court on Monday to 37 counts of animal cruelty, 10 counts of rape or attempted rape of a dog, and four counts of possessing or transmitting child abuse material.
He admitted killing at least 39 dogs he called “f*** toys”, filming the abuse of puppies at his sprawling McMinns Lagoon estate and sharing his depraved interests online under pseudonyms.
He used the encrypted messaging app Telegram to confess his crimes to a stranger.
“I had suppressed it,” he wrote in a message read to the court.
‘In recent years I’ve let it go again, and now I can’t stop. I do not want.’
Adam Britton (pictured) told a stranger on Telegram that he had stopped suppressing his violent urges
Britton confessed his sickening crimes to a stranger via encrypted messaging app Telegram
The court also heard he sexually abused his own Swiss Shepherd pets, Ursa and Bolt, for almost a decade until he finally went to Gumtree to find more dogs to kill.
However, until his arrest, Britton managed to keep his disturbing fantasies a secret, including from his wife.
Just two years ago, he was a respected researcher at Charles Darwin University, gaining international recognition for his work as a crocodile conservationist with his wife and business partner Erin.
About six months prior to his arrest in April 2022, the couple – who had been married for more than 15 years – were interviewed about their investigation on ABC News and Triple J’s news program Hack.
During a Covid lockdown in 2020, the couple filmed themselves feeding a freshwater crocodile called Njall on their property before posting it on Facebook.
Adam Britton is pictured with his wife Erin. They were married for at least 15 years
In the video, Britton looked at the camera and said, “Hello everyone, Adam here. Well, we are currently at home and have to feed the crocodiles.
“So what I’m going to do is hand this camera to Erin and say ‘hello,’ Erin.”
Mrs Britton smiled into the lens and said enthusiastically: ‘Hello everyone’, before grabbing the camera and filming her husband feeding chicken legs to Njall with large tongs.
There is no suggestion that Mrs Britton, a biologist and conservationist who has helped on a series of projects on sea turtles and crocodile counting, knew anything about her husband’s crimes or obsessions, and it appears she has dropped his surname .
National Geographic’s website suggests she will be on international wildlife expeditions for the next six months, and her biography makes no mention of her husband and former business partner.
Britton was a crocodile expert who set up a consultancy with his wife
Adam Britton (centre) with his wife Erin (left) and David Attenborough (right) during filming for a BBC documentary
Britton grew up in England and received his Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Bristol before moving to Australia after 1996 to pursue his fascination with crocodiles.
He met his future wife and they started a consultancy, Big Gecko, which sold crocodile images to television and film directors. They worked with natural history programs for the BBC and National Geographic.
Their saltwater crocodile, Smaug, became something of a celebrity in his field, appearing in two horror films.
Britton was a shameless self-promoter and often updated his social media profiles with photos of his crocodiles, properties and media clippings.
Although he managed to hide his sick fantasies, one of the most disturbing posts on his public Facebook page was a post celebrating his Swiss Shepherd Bolt’s first birthday in 2016.
The message included a photo of Bolt as a puppy from 2015. According to the court, Britton started sexually abusing his own dogs in 2014.
Many of his crimes against animals were so graphic and disturbing that Daily Mail Australia chose not to publish them.
In 2016, Britton uploaded a photo of one of his dogs, Bolt, as a puppy (pictured)
The court heard Britton began abusing his dogs, Ursa and Bolt (pictured) in 2014.
Prosecutors told the court Monday that it did a Telegram account used to connect with ‘like-minded people’, and another used to distribute images and recordings of the abuse.
“Using these applications, the perpetrator discussed his ‘kill count,'” prosecutor Marty Aust said.
His account contained 114 threads in which he described how he acquired the pets and how he abused them.
Britton bought other dogs on Gumtree from unsuspecting owners in the Darwin region.
The court heard he built a relationship with the owners and negotiated custody of their pets, many of whom reluctantly gave their pets away due to travel or work commitments.
In one scenario, Britton sent a message to the owners of a large brown dog to reassure them that the animal was ‘well in place’.
“Wolfe was relaxed, eating well and enjoying her new home,” the post read.
The prosecutor told the court that they had already been “sexually exploited, tortured and murdered.”
Last year, police seized 44 items during a raid on his home, including computers, mobile phones, cameras, external hard drives, tools and weapons.
They also found 15 files of child abuse material on his laptop.
After pleading guilty to all charges on Monday, Chief Justice Michael Grant alerted the gallery to the facts of the offensively detailed “acts that could only be described as grotesque atrocities that are both confronting and disturbing.”
“Which in my opinion have the potential to cause nervous shock or other adverse psychological response in someone exposed to these details,” he said.
Britton was charged last year, but his name was suppressed by the court to ensure media attention would not favor a jury against him.
The warrant was revoked after he pleaded guilty Monday.
His case will return to court on December 13 for sentencing.