Adam Britton: Why crocodile expert dog rapist was on the path to becoming a serial killer - as ex-cr

A leading criminal psychologist claims crocodile expert turned dog rapist and killer Adam Britton could have become a serial killer.

Tim Watson-Munro, a renowned forensic consultant who has testified at some of Australia’s biggest criminal trials, said Britton’s cruelty to animals was a big factor in his potential to cross over to murdering humans.

Dr Watson-Munro also said Britton, 52, who sexually abused and killed dogs including his own pets in a secret ‘torture room’, will have a hard time in a Darwin jail and is unlikely to rehabilitate.

‘I haven’t examined him, but had he not been caught, he may well have escalated… moved on to killing humans,’ Dr Watson-Munro told Daily Mail Australia.

‘Cruelty to animals, killing animals,  lighting fires, arson and bed wetting may point to serial killing later in life. 

‘In general terms somebody who is capable of committing this type of crime over a protracted period of time is clearly well organised, with no thought disorder or chaotic thinking.’

Adam Britton could have escalated  from killing and torturing dogs to murdering humans, a leading criminal psychologist says

Criminal psychologist Dr Tim Watson-Munro (above) says that in a case like that of Adam Britton, his offending against animals could have escalated into killing humans

While the depraved former zoologist is yet to be sentenced, Dr Watson-Munro said a ‘paraphilic’ like Britton would resist treatment in prison.

Britton has admitted that he ‘couldn’t stop, and didn’t want to stop’ raping and killing dogs. 

‘The reason is they love what they do, they are excited by it. It’s often the case they have one of two paraphilias – paedophilia, bestiality and, arguably, sadism which are all driven by sexual desire, twisted and perverted though it might be.

‘(It’s) sexual excitement and it’s all about control. Animals don’t have a voice, you can pick up strays. 

‘He had a whole set up involved in dark web activity, and it’s horrifying to think there’s like-minded people out there in abundance – but that’s part of the thrill, sharing the guilt, sharing the thrill.’ 

Britton pleaded guilty on Monday in Darwin Supreme Court to killing at least 39 dogs and raping puppies inside a shipping container on his property at McMinns Lagoon in outer suburban Darwin.

He filmed his abuse of animals he called ‘f*** toys’, which he sourced on Gumtree after sexually abusing his pet Swiss Shepherd dogs, Ursa and Bolt, over nine years.

He confessed to 37 counts of animal cruelty causing serious harm or death, 10 counts of raping or attempting to rape a dog, four counts of possessing or transmitting child abuse material, animal cruelty, breaching duty of care to Bolt and Ursa, and using a carriage service in an offensive way. 

Britton, who made documentaries about his work in wildlife management of crocodiles, posted films under topics like ‘zoo-sadism’ on encrypted messaging service Telegram under two accounts, ‘Monster’ and ‘Cerberus’.

While he awaits sentencing, Britton is believed to be housed inside Darwin Correctional Centre where the inmate population will take a dim view of someone who harms pet dogs. 

Adam Britton (above) sourced people’s pet dogs off Gumtree which he sexually exploited for his own sadistic sexual pleasure, killing most of them

Dr Watson-Munro, along with a former inmate at the jail, said fellow prisoners would focus on Britton.

The criminal psychologist put it bluntly: ‘People who screw dogs don’t do well in jail. Some people probably view cruelty to animals as more heinous than cruelty to people.’

Ex-bank robber turned TikTok star, Russell Manser, did a stretch in old Darwin jail in 1990 and said inmates would likely pelt Britton with faeces, and bash him in the yard in what he could expect to be a ‘brutal’ experience.

He would be regarded as on the lowest prison rung along with paedophiles, necrophiliacs, and people who offended against the elderly.

‘He’s going to be humiliated every day – he’ll have faeces, old milk and eggs, boiling water with jam so it sticks tossed at him,’ Manser said.

‘They’ll spit on him, stand over him, anything he’s got they’ll take. And it’s coming into the wet season, it’ll be suffocating in his cell and in crawl  the lizards and snakes.

‘He’ll have an absolutely terrible time.’ 

A former Northern Territory Corrections senior prison officer told Daily Mail Australia that Darwin jail – one of Australia’s most modern facilities –  had 80 per cent Indigenous inmates, but white prisoners would cause Britton the most trouble.

The criminal pyschologist and others say that Adam Britton won’t go well with the other inmates in Darwin Correctional Centre (above) and some inmates ‘view cruelty to animals as more heinous than cruelty to people’

He said the jail had protective custody, ‘but it’s a little more flexible than in the Eastern states’, however Britton ‘will find it very difficult in custody’.

Britton, once a respected academic who worked as a Senior Research Associate at Charles Darwin University, had set up alerts on Gumtree for when a new dog or puppy was listed for sale in the Darwin area.

Between November 2020 and April, 2022, he sourced 42 dogs of varying breeds and ages after building rapport with owners ‘many of whom had to reluctantly give their pets away due to travel or work commitments’, before torturing and killing them.

Online he chatted with other other sick subscribers about bestiality, animal abuse, how to source dogs, and how to dispose of their bodies.

Police found 15 child abuse material files on Britton’s laptop, including depraved material related to toddlers. 

He faces a a maximum of five years for each of 37 counts of animal cruelty causing serious harm or death, and up to 10 years for each offence of possessing child abuse material.

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