Latest news with #AdamBritton
Daily Mail
01-08-2025
- Daily Mail
Inside the haunted house of horrors where absolutely unspeakable atrocities took place - and the tell-tale traces of its evil past which remain
Off the Northern Territory National Highway, along the Outback drive which winds through the wetlands, the house of horrors which saw unspeakable atrocities by a depraved animal expert now stands eerily silent. The squalid torture chamber - where sadistic zoologist Adam Britton filmed himself raping, torturing and butchering countless pet dogs - has long gone. It's part of an attempt to clean up the site, whitewash its horrific history, and make it viable for sale - but who would pay the $650,000 asking price to live here now? The foul shipping container, that Britton himself called his 'torture room', was where the crocodile expert produced a video so violent and so obscene, it proved his undoing. He preyed on dogs snapped up from Gumtree ads or given to him in good faith by owners who had hit on hard times and were seeking a loving home for their treasured pets. Instead they suffered a fate so sick, twisted and evil, the details can never be published. Even his wife's two pedigree white Swiss shepherd dogs, Ursa and Bolt, were repeatedly raped and abused by Britton, out of her sight and without her knowledge. Today, Britton's former neighbours now believe the horror is so ingrained at the rural home at McMinns Lagoon, the property will forever be haunted by what he did. Local children are so convinced the property is home to evil spirits, they regularly break in and hold seances to make contact with the dead. The other lasting legacy of Britton's unmasking as one of Australia's most vile fiends and his subsequent imprisonment, say locals, is the notable return of stray dogs to the area. At what would have been the peak of Britton's depravity, the local population of feral dogs had mysteriously vanished, possibly because of the Monster of McMinns' evil. For up to five years though, local residents around the secluded home near Humpty Doo, 30km south-east of Darwin, had been oblivious to Britton's secret life. Outside of his shipping-container-turned-torture-chamber, Britton was a quiet, nerdy scientist who had appeared on television to share his knowledge of crocodiles. His pet crocodile Smaug - kept in the backyard billabong close to his torture chamber - had appeared in countless films and documentaries. The semi-tame, 5m-long, 550kg croc had intimidated former British SAS trooper Bear Grylls in a televised stunt with the TV adventurer. As his fame grew, Britton swam with the primeval killers in the wild for TV cameras, and in 2006, Sir David Attenborough visited to film his Life in Cold Blood documentary series. Britton built a special enclosure for Smaug - still standing on the property - that allowed filmmakers to capture groundbreaking footage of crocodiles mating. After Britton's fall from grace, fellow local crocodile expert, Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright, came to Smaug's rescue and adopted him. But while he was furthering his career, the secret depravities with animals behind the gates of his Outback home were escalating. In reality, behind the public persona, Britton's degenerate behaviour was building and evolving on urges involving animals that went back to his UK childhood. On a previous visit by the Daily Mail to the property, Britton's cameras, sex toys, weapons, and dog corpses had long gone, taken away by detectives to convict him. But there still remained soiled mattresses, broken bed frames, an empty bottle of Cointreau, rolled carpet, playing cards, and various mugs strewn on the floor. Some signs of Britton's evil presence are still evident at McMinns Lagoon today. Painted on the tarmac of the road - later painted over but still visible - outside Britton's former home are the words, 'DOG KILLA'. A decrepit caravan and stained furniture strewn around the property have been removed as part of the clean-up effort to sell it when it was put on the market last year while Britton awaited sentencing for his crimes. But the three-bedroom, one-bathroom house with a pool, which was run by Britton as his private bestiality snuff film studio, is refusing to sell. Daily Mail sought comment from the agent, NT realtor Kate Killiner. But according to neighbours, no one but a caretaker only periodically attends the address, which is secured from passers-by with a gate padlocked from the inside. One neighbour remembered the day Britton was arrested in April 2022. 'I didn't know him or ever see him, then came the day all the cars and police turned up outside the house,' he said. 'I actually thought it must have been drugs.' Another neighbour only caught glimpses of the vile sadist driving around in his white sports car with the registration plate, 'ALIG8R'. Britton's wife Erin, who had no knowledge of her husband's appalling secrets, had been living an increasingly separate life from him leading up to his arrest. She divorced Britton after 15 years of marriage and said she 'left sick' when she learned that he boasted to other online deviants that 'I love to hurt dogs'. 'I live for it,' he bragged in one video. 'I can't stop myself hurting dogs.' The couple had slept in separate bedrooms at the property for several years prior to his arrest, Ms Britton said, reflecting that he had 'just destroyed my entire life'. Britton's unravelling as a shocking animal sadist came after years of filming his exploits and posting it on the internet for similar sick twisted fiends. NT Animal Welfare alerted police to a video made by Britton and posted to a 'gore website' showing him sexually abusing, torturing and killing one dog and eight puppies. Aiming to become a celebrity in the field, he posted the video entitled '1B***h9Pups' on March 22, 2022. The female dog in the video was wearing a Darwin City Council 'great pets start with you' collar, narrowing down the video to the Northern Territory. NT Police and AFP officers later traced him and raided his home, seizing 44 items, including computers, cameras, hard drives, weapons and sex toys. Britton was charged with 56 counts related to the sexual abuse and torture of more than 42 dogs, along with possession of the worst category of child exploitation material. Born in the UK, the once-respected academic who had worked for the BBC and National Geographic eventually pleaded guilty on all charges and was sentenced to ten years and five months in prison. At his sentencing hearing last year when Northern Territory Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Grant detailed what he described as Britton's 'unspeakable' crimes against animals, the distress in the courtroom was palpable. Justice Grant warned the public gallery that he would have to describe Britton's offending that included 'grotesque cruelty toward animals'. Members of the public gallery sobbed and gasped as details of Britton's violent offending, resulting in the deaths of 39 dogs, including nine puppies, were read out. From 2020 until his arrest in 2022, Britton had used the encrypted social media service Telegram to connect with 'like-minded' animal abusers. His second account, under the name Cerberus, was used to upload and spread his videos which included admissions of his 'kill count'. The videos were saved on Britton's devices under names relating to the location, breed or name of the animal, including 'Mastiff1', 'Pit1' and 'NewBlue1'. Water tank on Britton's bush block pictured this week at the Outback property where eerie clues remain as to his appalling acts of violence and sadism against animals According to the facts, Britton would refer to the cruelty as 'ZooSadism' and posted to Telegram groups such as 'New Wicked Kennel', which had 15 users. In an online chat, Britton referred to his 'torture room' and what implements he would use, including a bread knife, before adding that: 'I can't stop myself hurting dogs. 'I am going to get another dog to kill tomorrow. I plan to hurt it, a lot. I am ridiculously excited about it,' he said. Britton had also boasted about the small animals he tortured as a child in Britain, about molesting horses as a 13-year-old, and encouraged others to rape and kill pet dogs. Justice Grant told Britton: 'Your depravity falls outside any ordinary human conception. 'Your sheer and unalloyed pleasure is sickeningly evident from the recorded material.' His Honour ordered Britton be banned from owning or having on his property mammal-type animals for the term of his natural life. For now, the stray dogs that have returned to his McMinns Lagoon home can roam free at last, finally free of the threat of his evil.
News.com.au
02-06-2025
- General
- News.com.au
New Attorney-General Michelle Rowland called to implement national bestiality material laws
New Attorney-General Michelle Rowland has been called to address 'pathetic' gaps in bestiality laws, where only three states currently outlaw materials showing acts of the animal torture. While the act of bestiality is illegal, only NSW, Western Australia and Tasmania have banned the possession, distribution and production of materials depicting bestiality. NSW Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst said the 'pathetic' gaps in legislation mean authorities don't have the means to convict criminals for committing the horrific crimes. Ms Hurst, who championed stronger laws in NSW, has called for the Commonwealth Criminal Code to introduce new offences for using a carriage service to possess, produce or share animal sexual abuse materials within or outside Australia. She's also calling for a federal taskforce to target offenders perpetrating these crimes. 'Many dangerous criminals are escaping conviction because of gaps in our laws. We must make sure our laws protect children and animals,' she told NewsWire. 'While further legislative changes are looking very hopeful in NSW, there is still the enormous issue that across the country, laws are still lacking. 'Given the gravity of the crimes, federal legislation in this space is sorely needed and should be urgently prioritised by the new federal Attorney-General.' Ms Hurst used the example of Northern Territory man Adam Britton who was slapped with a 10 year and five month jail sentence after he pleaded guilt to 60 charges of bestiality, animal cruelty and possessing child abuse material in August 2024. However authorities were unable to charge or convict him of the creation and sharing of bestiality materials due to the lack of such laws in NT legislation. 'There is no law in the NT to prohibit the distribution of such materials so while he was convicted of bestiality, he escaped charges for distribution,' he said. RSPCA NSW general counsel Kathryn Jurd, who has spent eight years running and prosecuting cases for the RSPCA, said differences in state legislation should not act as a barrier to law enforcement charging people with offences which reflect the full extent of their actions. 'When law enforcement discover these heinous crimes, they need to be in a position to charge in a way that reflects exactly what the person has done, what the evidence is capable of proving they have done,' she said. Speaking to the seriousness of cases involving animal sexual abuse material, she said features which 'regularly reoccur' in bestiality cases included the presence of children in the footage, and perpetrators being found in possession of child sexual abuse material. 'People who create animal sexual abuse material don't abide by state lines and the point of the creation of this type of material is often for it to be disseminated globally,' she said. 'Most people would support uniformity, particularly on a topic where there's so much consensus for really strong criminal law coverage across Australia.' While Ms Rowland declined to comment on Ms Hurst's demands, stating that they were a state issue, new shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser gave in-principle support to strengthened laws. 'Acts of bestiality are completely abhorrent,' he said.
