A British crocodile expert who admitted in court to filming himself sexually abusing, torturing and killing dozens of dogs will spend the next 10 years incarcerated, according to multiple reports.
Adam Britton, 53, was sentenced to 10 years and five months in Australian prison on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to 56 counts of bestiality and animal cruelty charges, the BBC and NBC News reported. Britton, who was arrested in 2022 in connection with the crimes, also admitted to four counts of accessing child abuse material, according to the outlets.
The Northern Territory Supreme Court heard from prosecutors that Britton filmed himself from November 2020 to April 2022 torturing 42 dogs of varying ages and breeds until the animals almost died, NBC News reported, citing court documents. He then shared the explicit videos online under different pseudonyms.
Britton, who used an Australian online marketplace to secure dogs from owners who had to give their pets away, would abuse the animals in a shipping container on his property that he placed recording equipment inside of, the BBC reported, per court documents. He would call this container the “torture room.”
Once killed, Britton would feed some of the dogs’ remains to crocodiles, according to the BBC, per the court filings.
“I deeply regret the pain and trauma that I caused to innocent animals,” Britton said in a letter dated July 16, per NBC News.
Judge calls Adam Britton’s actions ‘grotesque’
Chief Justice Michael Grant also called Britton’s actions “grotesque,” and said the “unalloyed pleasure” he took in torturing the dogs was “sickeningly evident,” the BBC reported.
The judge confirmed that at least 39 of the dogs were intentionally killed by Britton.
Britton was caught by authorities after he uploaded a clip of him torturing at least eight dogs, which were all puppies except one, according to the BBC. Someone who saw the video passed it on to the Northern Territory Police Force in an anonymous tip. Police in April 2022 seized recording devices, animal remains, weapons and a laptop, which also contained 15 files containing child abuse material.
“[Your] depravity falls entirely outside any ordinary human conception,” Grant said about Britton during his sentencing hearing, per British service broadcaster.
Adam Britton confesses to having a mental disorder
Britton told the court during the sentencing hearing that he was suffering from a mental disorder that caused intense and atypical sexual interests that were harmful to others. He added that he would seek long-term treatment for his issues.
“I now acknowledge that I’ve been fighting a rare paraphilic disorder for much of my life,” he said, per NBC News. “and that shame and fear prevented me from seeking the proper help I needed.”
Before Britton’s crimes were uncovered, he sexually abused his own dogs, Ursa and Bolt, for years, according to NBC News, citing court documents.
“My own dogs are family and I have limits,” he said in a Telegram message cited in the documents. “I only badly mistreat other dogs… I have no emotional bond to them, they are toys pure and simple. And (there are) plenty more where they came from.”
Even growing up in West Yorkshire before he moved to Australia 20 years ago, Britton was harboring a “sadistic sexual interest” in animals, court documents say, per the BBC.
“I was sadistic as a child to animals, but I had repressed it. In the last few years, I let it out again, and now I can’t stop. I don’t want to. :),” he wrote in one message the BBC reported was shared in court.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Adam Britton sentenced for sex crimes involving dogs who were tortured