Adam Britton: More animal abusers jailed after international investigation into vile high-profile zoologist

WARNING: CONFRONTING CONTENT

GPS location data attached to the image of a naked man, cuddling a Pit Bull with its mouth tied shut, has resulted in the arrest of two more animal abusers connected to the bestiality case of depraved zoologist Adam Britton.

In April 2022, the Northern Territory joint anti-child exploitation team executed a search warrant at Britton’s home at McMinn’s Lagoon, south of Darwin, after identifying him as the creator of an animal cruelty video which had been sent to authorities.

NT Police arrested and charged Britton with multiple offences including bestiality, animal cruelty, aggravated animal cruelty and child exploitation crimes.

After his arrest, detectives discovered Britton had been operating two accounts on encrypted messaging platform Telegram and was known in topic specific Telegram groups as a “high-level producer of animal cruelty videos”.

During an analysis of electronic devices, investigators identified another Telegram user who had shared animal cruelty material with Britton.

Police located multiple image and video files of animal cruelty produced by an unknown individual using the screen name “Graves”.

“It was determined that (Britton) and Graves exchanged approximately 705 files of animal abuse with one another,” US court documents state.

“An initial review of the material produced by Graves indicated that the material was filmed in the sleeper cabin of a tractor trailer and involved at least four different dogs that were sexually abused and tortured.

“In some of these files an adult male’s face is visible as is a unique tattoo of a star surrounded by sun rays on his arm.”

The files located on Britton’s devices contained multiple image and video files of animal cruelty that Graves had produced since November 2020.

In one image, which included what appeared to be a tan and white Pit Bull with its mouth tied shut, Graves’ face was visible.

“Law enforcement was able to extract EXIF data from some of the files associated with Graves which included GPS location data that showed they were created at a truck stop in Michigan on November 16, 2020,” court documents state.

A Telegram conversation between Britton and Graves was also located on Britton’s device in which Graves sent an image of a tractor trailer with a partial Tennessee license plate number.

Officer in Charge of the NT Police investigation, Det-Sgt. Mark Cronin, told The Nightly that NT Police referred Telegram user Graves to Homeland Security Investigations in the United States.

Based on the initial information NTPOL provided to HSI, its agents and analysts were able to identify Graves as Lucas Russell VanWoert.

In September 2022, HSI agents executed a federal search warrant on VanWoert’s home in Ohio, where he had relocated since creating the illegal material.

VanWoert — a former US Navy quartermaster — admitted to engaging in sex acts, beating, strangling a dog in the yard of his former employer in Grand Rapids and placing the body in a dumpster.

“Agents found three live dogs at the residence and discovered the body of a fourth dog buried in the backyard,” court documents state. “The three dogs appear to be malnourished and in very poor health.”

Authorities also seized several electronic devices that were found to contain videos of child pornography, which involved prepubescent children, as well as animal crush videos.

Animal crush videos are sexual fetish films of animals being brutally tortured, sexually exploited or killed.

At least one of VanWoert’s dogs was used to create the animal crush videos.

HSI special agents discovered that VanWoert sexually abused, tortured and killed at least four dogs and shared videos of his crimes with multiple individuals around the world.

In the videos, VanWoert inflicts extreme torture and abuse that is too violent and distressing to publish.

On each occasion, the abuse is filmed using a fixed camera while the truck driver can be seen taking close-up pictures and videos with his mobile phone.

“In between taking the videos and images with his cell phone, the male occasionally exits to his home screen and clicks on an application before resuming,” court documents state.

“Also on the home screen, you can see a message from ‘Monster’ on (Telegram).”

“Monster” was the alias Britton used for one of his Telegram accounts.

The 27-year-old was arrested and charged with animal crushing and child sexual abuse material offences which occurred between November 2020 and April 2022.

“Specifically, on November 16, 2020, the defendant knowingly created an obscene video or digital recording … that depicted a dog being sexually assaulted, impaled, and otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury and resulted in killing the dog,” court documents state.

“At some time later, the video was sent via an internet chat application to an individual in McMinn’s Lagoon, Northern Territory, Australia.”

In May, US District Judge James R. Knepp sentenced VanWoert to more than eight years in prison for possession and transportation of child pornography, transportation of obscene materials and creating an animal crush video.

Vanwoert was additionally ordered to serve 15 years of supervised release, required to register as a sex offender, pay $9000 in restitution and was banned from owning or possessing any animals for life.

At the time of the arrest he was married to Heather Marie VanWoert.

In November 2022, his wife was arrested and charged with 12 animal cruelty offences including torture.

The 32-year-old was jailed and has since been released.

Meanwhile in Australia, Britton was last month convicted on 63 offences and sentenced to 10 years and 5 months in prison with a six-year non-parole period.