EXCLUSIVE
WARNING: Graphic content
A disgraced crocodile expert filmed himself raping, torturing and murdering pet dogs and uploaded them to the internet because he wanted to create the world’s best ‘shock video’.
Adam Britton, 52, sourced dogs on Gumtree Australia to molest and kill in bushland along the Arnhem Highway, at his sprawling home at McMinns Lagoon, and at a neighbouring property in Darwin’s south between 2020 and 2022.
When he was home, he would either kill the animals in the yard or in an old shipping container where he kept his filming equipment.
The container – or the ‘torture room’, as he called it – can be seen today inside the fence at the front of the property, close to the road and any passers by.
His cameras, sex toys, weapons, and dog corpses were long gone, but what remained was soiled mattresses, broken bed frames, an empty bottle of Cointreau, mugs, carpet, playing cards, and various mugs strewn about the floor.
The torture room was essentially hidden in plain sight, but not even his wife Erin Britton (nee O’Brien) knew about his depraved behaviour – the couple largely lived apart, a source told Daily Mail Australia.
She had no idea whatsoever that her husband was actively trying to create a name for himself by making vile content at the home they shared for more than 20 years, and posting it online.
Adam Britton is pictured with his wife, Erin. They were married for at least 15 years
Pictured: Inside the shipping container, left abandoned on his property in McMinns Lagood
Pictured: The shipping container where he raped, tortured and murdered dogs between 2020 and 2022
Soiled mattresses, carpets, a bottle of alcohol and mugs littered the container once referred to as a ‘torture room’
Sources say he wanted to become something of a celebrity in the field when he posted one video, called ‘1B***h9Pups’, to an abuse website on March 22, 2022.
One source said: ‘He intentionally wanted it to be the most-known shock video ever.’
He posted multiple videos online over the two-year period, but ‘1B***h9Pups’ was his undoing – it was so violent and obscene that furious internet users scoured through the twisted film to find clues as to who he was.
Eventually, they noticed an orange City of Darwin leash and reported him to the police. His home was raided a month later, in April 2022, and he has been in custody ever since.
The three-bedroom, three-hectare property where he and Erin invited film crews, TV stations, radio hosts, animal experts, and friends is now completely abandoned.
The crocodile pen where they kept their exotic pets – including Smaug, the movie star crocodile – is empty, and the two Swiss Shepherd pets who he also abused, Ursa and Bolt, are nowhere to be seen.
There are padlocks on the fence, along with an eerie sign from Darwin City Council that read ‘a dog on these premises has been declared a dangerous dog’.
At McMinns Lagoon, almost everyone has at least one dog – to hear one relentlessly barking, or even crying, wouldn’t seem too out of place, and that’s only if you could hear it above the deafening sound of cicadas.
Temperatures during the day rarely drop below 35C so people stay indoors, in front of fans or under loud air conditioning units.
His cameras, sex toys, weapons, and dog corpses were long gone, but what remained was soiled mattresses, broken bed frames, an empty bottle of Cointreau, mugs, carpet, playing cards, and various mugs strewn about the floor
The torture room was essentially hidden in plain sight, but not even his wife Erin Britton (nee O’Brien) knew about his depraved behaviour – the couple largely lived apart, a source told Daily Mail Australia
Britton pleaded guilty to a raft of animal abuse charges on Monday
Properties are also spread wide apart – most of Britton’s neighbours had never spoken to him during the 20-odd years he lived there, and couldn’t remember his face when prompted with a photo.
It was only when key details of the case were mentioned they sprung to life and said, ‘Oh you mean the dog f***er!’
‘Didn’t know him,’ one neighbour said. ‘Was he a local? Must have been a pretty sick sort of guy.’
Another woman said she had lived on her property, only a few doors down from Britton, since the mid-1970s and barely knew anyone on the street, and rarely went to the local shops.
Britton lived with his wife, Erin. Pictured is a part of their home that appeared on television, when news crews would do segments on his life as a crocodile expert
The home they shared (pictured) is now abandoned. His wife appears to have changed her last name
Pictured: The outside of the enclosure where Britton’s crocodiles used to live
Even at the local shops, the sight of Britton’s face and the mention of his name only elicited puzzled expressions.
‘People like him don’t go to the shops,’ one shop owner said.
But in some ways, it wasn’t surprising that locals didn’t see him or his wife around the area.
Erin often worked as a ranger about three hours south of Darwin and, when she wasn’t doing that, she was off on a months-long international zoology expeditions. She still has expeditions planned today, and has apparently cut ties with her husband and dropped his surname.
Britton also went on these expeditions, frequently visiting places like Antarctica.
In fact, documents tendered in Darwin’s Supreme Court suggest he made his vile videos at home, before going on international trips and sending the videos to like-minded people using Telegram.
A number of the home videos were sent from Antarctica, most were sent from the NT, and a few were sent from Qld and NSW.
Pictured: A sign on Britton’s property that read, ‘a dog on these premises has been declared a dangerous dog’
The sprawling property had three bedrooms and a pool (pictured), which has since fallen into disrepair
There were a few instances where, according to court documents, he would sent a video of himself inflicting torture on a dog one day, and then he’d upload a photo of whales in the Antarctic on Instagram the next.
The last photo he posted social media was king penguins in South Georgia Island on February 18, 2022, during an arctic and Antarctic expedition – two months before his arrest.
During that trip alone, he sent seven videos and 28 photos of dog rape, torture and murder to a group on Telegram, under the pseudonym Cerberus.
His account had 114 threads where he described how he acquired the pets and how he abused them.
He sent more than 100 videos and photos to other users between 2020 and 2022.
Prosecutors told a court on Monday he had a Telegram account which was used to engage with ‘like-minded people’, and another which was used to disseminate images and recordings of the abuse.
‘Using these applications, the offender discussed his ‘kill count’,’ prosecutor Marty Aust said.
Britton sourced other canines off Gumtree Australia from unsuspecting owners in the Darwin region.
Adam Britton (centre) with his wife Erin (left) and David Attenborough (right) during filming for a BBC documentary Cold Blood
Britton not only tortured and sexually abused his own pets Ursa and Bolt (pictured together), who he created an Instagram page for, but also dogs from pet owners he had lured into his trap through the online marketplace platform Gumtree Australia
The court heard he built rapport with the owners and negotiated taking 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 the animal was ‘settling in well’.
‘Wolfe was relaxed and eating well and enjoying her new home,’ the message read.
The prosecutor told the court they had already been ‘sexually exploited, tortured and killed’.
Last year, police seized 44 items including computers, mobile telephones, cameras, external hard drives, tools and weapons during a raid of his home.
They also found 15 child abuse material files on his laptop.
After pleading guilty to all charges on Monday, Chief Justice Michael Grant warned the gallery the facts of the offending detailed ‘acts that could only be described as grotesque cruelty which are both confronting and distressing’.
‘Which in my assessment have the potential to cause nervous shock or some other adverse psychological reaction to a person exposed to those details,’ he said.
Britton was charged last year, but his name was suppressed by the courts to ensure media attention would not bias a jury against him.
The order was lifted after his pleaded guilty on Monday.
His matter is set to return to court on December 13 for sentencing submissions.
Britton (left) was a respected zoologist who raped and murdered dogs, and posted the videos on the internet