The final hearing for the case involving zoologist Adam Britton, a British crocodile expert, was adjourned on Thursday after his lawyer produced a fresh report to the judge. The court will now hear the case in August.
As per Mirror, Britton – charged with rape, torture and death of dozens of dogs — faces 249 years in prison in Australia. Last year, Britton had pleaded guilty to over 60 charges of animal cruelty.
On Thursday, the NT Supreme Court judge Michael Grant requested his staff and animal rights activists to leave the room before the beginning of the hearing, the report added.
"In my assessment, the material has the potential to cause nervous shock or some other psychological disturbance," he was quoted as saying by ABC. The judge called the offending as “grotesque cruelty to animals".
While people were waiting for the final verdict, his lawyer presented a new report and requested the judge to consider it. The report in question talked about his current state of mind after he took "nearly 30 hours of treatment by a psychologist" in prison, the report added.
“Remorse is considered evidence of rehabilitative prospects, as is insight. Those are things that may not be present the first time that someone speaks to someone in a professional capacity. They are things that often evolve with treatment. They're not fixed in stone," Britton's lawyer was quoted as saying.
Requesting for a reduction in his client's sentence, the lawyer added, “This is a human being who has been afflicted by a condition since very early childhood … It is not his fault. It's of significance, your honour, that this particular condition is exceptionally taboo in most societies, and the court can, I hope, accept that that would have been a very difficult thing to grow up with and learn to manage into adulthood.”
What is the case?
As per an ABC report, he used to torture dogs and beat them to death at his place in Darwin, Australia. He also used to record the act of cruelty.
The report added that Britton had a “torture room” – a shipping container — where he used to sexually assault the dogs.
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