A dog-raping zoologist who filmed himself torturing helpless animals was sentenced to more than a decade in an Australian prison.
Adam Britton, a 53-year-old British crocodile expert, has been ordered to serve 10 years and 5 months behind bars after he pleaded guilty to 56 charges relating to animal cruelty and bestiality, the BBC and Australia's ABC News reported.
He also pleaded guilty to four counts of accessing child abuse material.
Over 18 months, Britton filmed himself killing 39 of the 42 dogs in a shipping container outfitted as a torture chamber with recording devices on his sprawling, rural Darwin, Australia property, said investigators. He then uploaded the content to social media using fake names, court documents stated, according to the BBC.
Britton was arrested in April 2022 when someone tipped off police after noticing an identifying dog leash in one of the videos.
Although the investigation only included evidence from 18 months prior to his arrest, Britton confessed in secret online chat rooms that his "sadistic sexual interest" started when he began molesting horses at the age of 13.
"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. :)," Northern Territory Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Grant read aloud during Britton's sentencing hearing Thursday.
While his dogs were off-limits, "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," he wrote in a chat.
To dispose of the dogs' remains, Britton confessed he'd sometimes feed them "to other animals" on his property.
"I deeply regret the pain and trauma that I caused to innocent animals and consequently to my family, friends and members of the community," Britton wrote in a letter read aloud in court. "I will seek long term treatment and... I will find a path towards redemption."
Considering time served, Britton will be eligible for parole in September 2028.
