Bestiality: Analysing what causes people to have sex with animals
With 57 recorded incidences of bestiality in Queensland in five years a clinical psychologist has broken down what makes people perform sex acts on animals. Full list of the nation’s worst offenders. WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
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Shocking details of bestiality acts before the courts have been exposed with experts revealing a surprisingly high proportion of the population have sexual encounters with animals, and the psychology behind what drives them.
Dr Lars Madsen, a Brisbane-based clinical and forensic psychologist said there were 57 recorded incidences of bestiality in Queensland from July 2015 to June 2020.
There are also currently at least six people charged with bestiality before the courts in Queensland, including a couple accused of multiple sex acts with two dogs over 12 months.
Under the Queensland Criminal Code Act 1899 section 211, any person found guilty of engaging in sexual intercourse with an animal is liable to imprisonment for seven years.
Dr Madsen said it was “difficult to determine the prevalence of bestiality due to the under-reporting of the issue”.
REASONS BEHIND IT
Dr Madsen said there are different psychological, social and cultural explanations for bestiality.
He said an Alfred Kinsey report back from the 1940s and 1950s, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, indicated even back then 8 per cent of men and 3.6 per cent of women reported sexual encounters with animals at some point in their lives.
Dr Madsen said individuals engaging in bestiality tend to have a variety of other kinds of paraphilias.
He said individuals that had sexual contact with animals generally struggled emotionally and were socially isolated.
“They have a lot of anxiety about engaging with people and might be very introverted and withdrawn,” he said.
“These kinds of characteristics have predisposed them to pursue contact and connection with animals that has become sexual at some point.”
He said he received a referral last year for someone who identified as a zoophile, a person who is sexually attracted to animals.
“They were in a relationship with an animal and they had social anxiety and struggled a lot with human relationships, feeling safe, feeling connected and feeling understood by other people,” Dr Madsen said.
“Their bond with their animal had over time become sexualised. But they didn’t have that broad unusual sexual profile.”
But he said back in a 2004 study by Andrea Beetz, Bestiality and Zoophilia: Sexual Relations with Animals, suggested it might be more common than previously thought, especially in rural areas.
DEVELOPMENT ISSUES, CHILDHOOD ISSUES
He said a study by Earls and Lalumière in 2002 suggest there might be developmental issues involved in bestiality.
“Also, those who have a history of sexual abuse or problems with being able to form relationships,” Dr Madsen said.
He said a more recent study involving male offenders found men who had a history of significant violence and sexual violence were more likely to have engaged in bestiality in their childhood.
“These individuals also, aside from engaging in bestiality, were more likely to have unusual and atypical sexual interests and behaviours.”
He said the internet had provided access and opportunity for people to be able to explore and engage in these kinds of fantasies.
INTERNET EXPOSURE
Mr Madsen said if you think about the time before, there wasn’t the same level of access to the internet and certain kinds of pornography there is now.
“Anyone can access extreme kinds of pornography, including bestiality, fairly easily.
“I think there will be people in the community who never had an interest in this stuff but would be exposed at vulnerable ages and found themselves interested, excited or in some way affected by it and they may struggle with it.”
He said if someone had a problem or anxiety about bestiality, there were “very few people they can actually go to”.
“Usually they will go to a psychiatrist or a psychologist who might specialise in this type of thing,” he said.
“Typically the therapy you would engage with them in is more about trying to help being able to better manage their emotional problems and be better able to form relationships and establish relationships with people in their life that are fulfilling and meaningful, and ultimately also physical and sexual.
“I think people who have gone through that process generally their interest in this type of stuff – in bestiality – dissipates as they feel more connected, less isolated and more understood by other people.”
You can listen to Dr Madsen analyse sexual offending and try and break it down on his podcast Beyond The Crime: A Psychological Analysis with Shay Addison and Dr Rob Brockman.
Below are eight offenders who pleaded guilty in Australian courts in the last 1.5 years to bestiality.
GOLD COAST: REBECCA LOUISE MICALLEF, 35
A Gold Coast mum filmed herself engaging in sexual acts with her pet beagles.
Southport District Court was told Micallef recorded 28 videos – most only seconds in length – involving one or both of her dogs across a three-week period in January.
She also filmed an unsuccessful attempt to have sex with her male dog on January 20.
Crown prosecutor Stephanie Gallagher said the recordings were sent to Micallef’s then-partner.
The court was told the man the then-Pimpama woman was dating at the time had repeatedly messaged her in the weeks prior about his desire for her to engage in sexual activity with her dogs, saying he wanted videos of it and urging her to “practise”. Micallef initially refused his requests.
Micallef pleaded guilty to several charges including attempted bestiality – relating to the sex attempt – and breaching duty of care by inappropriate handling, in relation to the remaining videos.
She was sentenced to 15 months’ jail, wholly suspended for 18 months, placed on probation for 18 months. She was also banned from possessing, purchasing, or otherwise acquiring any animal for five years.
BRISBANE: JACOB KINKEAD BERRY, 26
Berry was depicted in five videos found on his phone in which he was filmed “attempting to have carnal knowledge with a dog”.
Also found in his possession were hundreds of illegal videos and pictures that a judge described as the most repugnant child abuse material imaginable.
Police discovered the disturbing content on Berry’s phone during a raid at his Woolloongabba property in March 2022, where he was busted with varying quantities of drugs including cocaine, steroids and cannabis, along with more than $23,000 in cash, records of his drug sales and his clients’ outstanding debts.
He was sentenced on August 3 in the Brisbane Supreme Court after pleading guilty to charges including possession of dangerous drugs, attempted bestiality and possession of child exploitation material.
Berry was given a head sentence of two years’ imprisonment with immediate parole.
He was also sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment up to 12 months, all wholly suspended for three years.
Convictions were recorded.
WARWICK: DUANE EDWARD NIXON, 51
Nixon went to the home of a 22-year-old Warwick woman on February 25 – 26 in 2022, and at knifepoint threatened her to get into his car.
Over the following nine hours, Nixon subjected the woman to horrifying physical abuse, including striking her legs with a metal object to prevent escape as well as “degrading and humiliating” acts.
The Gatton man raped the woman before forcing the woman to endure vaginal rape by a dog, while it was being recorded and “threatened to release the video on the internet”.
He pleaded guilty in Warwick District Court in 2023 to one charge of kidnapping, sexual assault, stealing, extortion, bestiality as well as two charges of torture, and three charges of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed in company and rape.
He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of eight years.
CABOOLTURE: KELVIN PAUL LOWE, 51
Police executed a search warrant at Lowe’s Caboolture home where they uncovered a plethora of child exploitation material, including up to 30 minutes of footage of a young girl at a public pool at Caboolture and various other videos taken of “a number” of different children at swimming pools and in hotel rooms.
Two more waterproof cameras were seized, along with Lowe’s computer which had organised files containing more than 450 “highly serious” child pornography images and 52 child prognography videos.
Among the files were five deleted videos of Lowe engaging in explicit sexual acts with a dog, including him forcing the dog to lick and penetrate his own anus.
The handful of videos which were made sometime between February 9, 2017 and April 28, 2019, also show Mr Lowe squeezing the dogs’ genitalia, as well as masturbating both himself and the dog.
He pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court on July 28, 2022 to five counts of bestiality, three counts of possessing child exploitation material, one count of making child exploitation material and one count of indecently treating children aged under 12 and 16.
He was sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment with parole eligibility on May 28, 2023.
TASMANIA: JACOB HEATLIE JOHNSTON, 21
The Branxholm man led a beloved pet goat its owners considered as family from Tin Timbers Cafe and Art Gallery on June 2, 2022 to a Centenary Park amenities block before abusing it for a protracted period of time.
Justice Robert Pearce told the Launceston Supreme Court holiday-makers at the nearby Branxholm Campground could hear the goat bleating for “up to two hours”.
Five months later, when Johnston abused a second goat, he left DNA evidence of his foul crime, linking him to the first assault.
Johnston previously pleaded guilty in the Launceston Supreme Court to two counts of bestiality.
Justice Pearce placed Johnston on a two-year community corrections order, ordered he compensate the goats’ owners for veterinary bills, and placed him on the sex offenders registry for five years.
SYDNEY: GEORGE DANAKIS, 44
Danakis broke into St Marys High School’s milking shed in Sydney’s west and had sex with two sheep and a goat.
On May 6 Danakis was recorded herding two goats into a gated area. A week later, he was filmed walking around the milking shed naked from the waist down.
On May 18, police interrupted Danakis engaging in sexual intercourse with a male sheep while a female goat was observed on the ground appearing to be in shock.
A mobile phone belonging to Danakis was found in the sheep paddock on June 24, and was found to contain bestiality material.
Danakis was sentenced in Penrith District Court on July 25 after previously pleading guilty to destroy damage property, bestiality, possessing bestiality material, break and enter and possessing an unauthorised firearm.
He was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months prison.
SA: NATHAN JAMES MOORHOUSE, 30
After searching Moorhouse’s home, police found child exploitation material of a 14-year-old victim he had sexually abused for close to a year, as well as three videos of him masturbating his dog.
The Osborne man pleaded guilty in the District Court to maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child and bestiality.
He was sentenced to 11 years jail, with a non-parole period of six years.
The sentence was backdated to April 6, 2021.
NT: ADAM ROBERT CORDEN BRITTON, 52
Britton admitted in Darwin’s Supreme Court on September 25 to killing at least 39 dogs which he called “f--- toys”, raping puppies, running a “torture room” on his McMinns Lagoon property, and advising others in “zoo-sadism”.
Crown prosecutor Marty Aust told the court the Northern Territory-based zoologist had a sadistic sexual interest in animals – in particular dogs – dating back to at least 2014 when he began engaging in sexual activities with his two Swiss-Sheppard’s Ursa and Bolt.
Between November 17, 2020, and April 22, 2022, he sourced 42 dogs of varying breeds and ages which he later tortured and sexually exploited for sadistic sexual pleasure, killing most of them, the court heard.
Mr Aust said Britton set up alerts on Gumtree for when a new dog or puppy was listed for sale in the Darwin area.
The court heard Britton used the encrypted messaging service Telegram to share videos of his offending through two accounts titled Monster and Cerberus.
He also chatted with other users about bestiality, animal abuse, how to source dogs, and how to dispose of their bodies.
A search of Britton’s laptop also found 15 child abuse material files he had sourced online, including toddlers being forced to engage depraved acts.
Britton pleaded guilty 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.
He was remanded in custody and will return to court for sentencing at a later date.
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