Adam Britton, a leading zoologist who has worked on BBC and National Geographic productions, pleaded guilty to 56 charges relating to bestiality and animal cruelty.

He also admitted to four counts of accessing child abuse material.

The Northern Territory (NT) Supreme Court heard the 53-year-old filmed himself torturing the animals until almost all died, and then shared the videos online under pseudonyms.

His abuse went unnoticed for years, until a clue was found in one of his videos. Britton was arrested in April 2022 after a search of his rural Darwin property, which also uncovered child abuse material on his laptop.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    5 months ago

    He also admitted to four counts of accessing child abuse material.

    This seems like it should have also been in the headline.

    • Nuerion@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      i mean sure looking up that shit is bad but fucking dogs to death is worse i think

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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        5 months ago

        I didn’t say don’t put the dog part in the headline, I said put both in the headline. “He’s also a pedophile” shouldn’t be something that people need to keep reading to find out about.

        • Zozano@lemy.lol
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          5 months ago

          Being a paedo is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. CSAM is illegal, rightfully so, but the CSAM videos weren’t produced by him.

          The amount of suffering produced directly by Britton vastly outweighs the suffering he caused by potentially redistributing the CSAM videos.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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            5 months ago

            Most parents would disagree with you about people who sexually abuse children being inconsequential.

            • Zozano@lemy.lol
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              5 months ago

              Within the context of what I’m saying, Britton didn’t film the CSAM videos. Making CSAM and possessing it are very different in terms of suffering produced.

              Sharing CSAM potentially encourages the creation of more, and further objectifies the victims without consent which is obviously abhorrent.

              But however abhorrent this is, it is inconsequential compared to the suffering Britton inflicted directly.

              Even still, I will reiterate, the direct experience of those poor dogs is leagues more horrific than your average child molestation. If you disagree, you evidently don’t know exactly how fucked up Britton was and/or have a species bias.

                • sandbox@lemmy.world
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                  4 months ago

                  Americans are way too obsessive with this stuff imo, images of naked kids aren’t inherently sexual, it’s only a problem if they’re sexualised. Yeah obviously you shouldn’t post your pics of your kids online, clothed or not, but I don’t see any problem at all of having a pic of your baby’s first bath or whatever. It’s entirely normal.

                • Zozano@lemy.lol
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                  5 months ago

                  I don’t know what to make of this, because I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having pictures of your naked baby/toddler if you’re taking the pictures from a parental perspective.

                  It becomes an issue when you show them to someone who wouldn’t normally see that baby naked, or send them over the internet.

        • kandoh@reddthat.com
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          5 months ago

          Why? The term itself has become almost totally devalued after a decade of conservatives labeling everyone with it. When I see the word now I just think it identifies the information as clickbait or propaganda.

      • catloaf@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        I don’t think he actually fucked the dogs to death. I think they died of actual sadistic torture.

        Which isn’t any better, but somehow the former just feels worse to me.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          5 months ago

          Death by anal perforation or whatever would be a shit way to die, but I think there’s some that are even worse.

    • njm1314@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      It’s weird how often headlines bury that lede. Happened a lot with that Dutch volleyball player too. Headlines would never call him a child rapist. That’s what he did yet never in the headline.

      • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz
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        4 months ago

        On a technicality, as in the end he wasn’t convicted of that under Dutch law because rape (back then) required violence. Any newspaper directly calling him a child rapist opens themselves up to a possible lawsuit.

        The sentence was adjusted in line with Dutch law, and the charge of rape was substituted for one referring to ontucht (“sexual acts that violate social-ethical norms”).[21][22] After serving 13 months of his original four year sentence, he was released from prison.[17] Until 1 July 2024, Dutch law only recognised rape if force was involved.[23]

    • Floey@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      Unless he paid for it I don’t see how the two things are remotely equivalent. I’d take someone having thousands of vile images on their computer over someone who abused a child or animal even once.

  • Zozano@lemy.lol
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    5 months ago

    I’ve been following this case for almost two years, the sick fuck did this in my home town.

    The degree of pain this cunt inflicted is disgusting. I regret reading the detailed description of the 1B9P video, it made me sick.

    To give this piece of shit the opportunity to reenter society, and potentially torture other animals, is unacceptable. 10 years doesn’t cut it.

    A Reddit user said:

    Do not look up his crimes even if you think you’ve been desensitized. I glanced at the description and some of my wiring just melted. I backed the heck out and remained human. Worse than any cartel videos but with puppies. Leave it alone

    Which about sums it up.

  • 58008@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Both child abuse and animal abuse are treated far too leniently by the law. This guy should never be released.

    • Cuck4Mai@lemmynsfw.com
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      5 months ago

      “He tortured at least 42 dogs, killing 39 of them, according to court documents seen by the BBC”

      This is beyond being a pervert. This is a fucking serial killer. He tortured and killed the dogs in a shipping container on his property, and fed them to other animals.

      The video that got him caught involved torturing 8 puppies.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        5 months ago

        And to my horror as a dog owner, he tricked pet owners into given them to him. It’s not rational but it feels worse when they all had names and people who loved them.

    • Zozano@lemy.lol
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      5 months ago

      “Corporate wants you to find the difference between these two people”

      shows a picture of a massively gross pervert and an expert on croc footwear

      cuts away “they’re the same people”

  • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
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    5 months ago

    woa and the summary does not even get into the general description of what he did that sounds so bad I don’t want any details. I want to hit I need to take a half day in chat and then take tomorrow to.

    • Zozano@lemy.lol
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      I’ve read a more detailed summary than what is currently available by doing a search.

      It actually took me a week to read the description though, I just couldn’t process how someone could be this sick.

      I regret knowing the details, I am sick with anger whenever I think about Britton.

      To know it happened in my hometown makes it so much worse to me.

    • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
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      5 months ago

      RTFA

      Britton usually went to great lengths to avoid identifying himself or his location in his videos, but in this one a bright orange City of Darwin dog leash could be seen in the background.

        • Zozano@lemy.lol
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          5 months ago

          A user named mushroom* on Reddit found the leesh and forwarded it to the police here.

          Later, presumably after Britton was already arrested, someone scrubbed through his videos frame-by-frame looking for clues.

          In one video of him torturing dogs, the dog kicks the camera and his face was visible for a single frame.

          .* don’t know the exact spelling

          • sandbox@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            God, the fucking mental fortitude it must have taken to go through those videos frame by frame. The people who do that shit should never have to work another day in their lives, just give them an income for the rest of their lives and let them go take a permanent vacation.

      • Zozano@lemy.lol
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        5 months ago

        Anyone who down votes this has no idea how fucked up Britton was.

        As someone who was sexually abused as a child, I can say with certainty that Britton’s capacity to inflict suffering far surpasses 99% of child rapists.

        If you disagree, I’m certain you do not know the details of Britton’s crimes.

        • Mango@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          There’s some idiots so damn bandwagoned by popular media that they think some dude getting excited about kids is equal to torturing to death several living things. These are people who are out of touch because they don’t live with real problems or know how bad pain can be. They’re only gonna react with what they think is most socially reinforced.

          • Zozano@lemy.lol
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            5 months ago

            What those poor dogs experienced is beyond my comprehension.

            What a lot of people don’t understand is this wasn’t just physical torture, Britton was doing this shit and making other dogs watch, because he knew it was adding to the trauma.

            If these were people, and not dogs, Britton would go down as the sickest fuck in modern history, not even John Wayne Gacey was this disturbed (assuming you don’t have a species bias).

            • Mango@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              I’ll never get over how people put animals below them. Like, I eat meat. I’ve got no problem with the food chain. I am bothered by the food industry though. The cows shouldn’t be living fucked up lives so I can eat them.

  • dumbass@leminal.space
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    5 months ago

    He’ll be dead soon, scum like that dont last too long in prison. Maybe a gofund me for someone’s commissary to grease the wheels.