Zoo rapist attacked teen girls he groomed with reptiles - 'fear, sickness and disgust'

A zoo worker raped and choked a young girl and indecently assaulted another after he lured them using their interest in reptiles. Former Canberra Reptile Zoo employee Liam Anthony Thornton, 26, was found guilty at an Australian court of 11 offences, including sexual intercourse without consent, grooming and committing an act of indecency without consent.

Thornton snared the two girls, one aged under 16 and the other aged under 18, through their shared interest in reptiles with offences taking place in the early 2020s when he was aged in his early 20s.

Last year an Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Supreme Court jury found Thornton had groomed and indecently assaulted one of the girls, and to have repeatedly sexually assaulted, raped and choked the second.

ABC News Australia reports a court heard the youngest victim targeted by Thornton has lost her dream of working at the reptile zoo because "I was groomed by a man I'd known and trusted for years".

Speaking to the court the youngest girl's mother said Thornton took away what "was left of her childhood" and that his actions had meant her daughter was not "able to grow up at her own safe pace".

The older victim of Thorton's depraved actions said it left her filled with "fear, sickness and disgust".

In a striking statement she said: "944 days ago I was raped. What I went through is something no teenager or child should go through."

She told the court she had put her trust in Thornton but that he "took something that I'll never get back", adding that the legal process had phsyically and mentally exhausting but that with Thornton now found guilty it meant "it wasn't for nothing".

She continued: "I hope it ends with me, not just for those he could have hurt, but for my younger self."

Thornton remains on bail in Australia, but will return to the ACT Supreme Court for sentencing at a later date.