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Richard Huckle, 30, admitted an unprecedented number of offences against children aged between six months and 12 years from 2006 to 2014 when he masqueraded as a devout Christian, photographer and English teacher to prey on poor children in Kuala Lumpur over nine years.
A series of pictures and videos of his rapes and assaults on children were shared with paedophiles worldwide through an encrypted website. He even tried to make a business out of his horrific crimes by crowd-funding the release of the images and was compiling a paedophile’s manual at the time of his arrest by the British National Crime Agency.
Richard Huckle in court
Judge Peter Rook QC told the offender: ‘You had become consumed with paedophilia. Your life revolved around your obsession with your own sexual gratification’.
‘It is also clear that, had you not been arrested, you planned to continue the same lifestyle using the expertise that you were keen to show off to and share with other abusers so as to continue your sexual exploitation of the children of such communities,’ the judge added.
Huckle was brought up in a comfortable middle class Christian household but had shunned the company of other children and spent most of his teenage years at home on his computer. The predator confessed to his mother after he was arrested and later given bail on condition that he stayed at his parent’s house in Ashford, Kent. His parents immediately begged police to take him away and were even prepared to testify against him in court.
Huckle’s paedophilia began as soon as he reached adulthood when he took a gap year in Cambodia, where he molested a toddler. The depraved act continued when he spent almost a decade in Malaysia as a Christian volunteer and teacher. Although there was no evidence that he committed any crimes in Britain, Huckle cultivated his image of a devoutly religious philanthropist at home and abroad.