One of Richard Huckle’s victims has told the BBC he wants him behind bars forever.
A British man is facing multiple life sentences for numerous sex crimes against Malaysian children that he boasted about on the ‘dark web’.
Richard Huckle, 30, of Ashford, Kent, admitted offenses between 2006 and 2014 against victims aged between six months and 12 years.
Huckle is believed to have abused up to 200 children.
His sentencing hearing began at the Old Bailey on Wednesday and is due to conclude on Friday.
The 91 charges related to 23 children from a predominantly poor Christian community in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur.
He admitted 71 of the charges, but prosecutors asked that the other counts be “entered into the record.”
Mr Huckle, a freelance photographer, was arrested by National Crime Agency officers at Gatwick Airport in December 2014.
pedophile manual
Details of the abuse can only be reported now because investigators had previously sought a court order to ensure the victim was safe from other online sex offenders.
Mr Huckle, who describes himself as a practicing Christian, first visited Malaysia at the age of 18 or 19 during a gap year as a teacher. After that, he continued to care for children while doing volunteer work.
Investigators found numerous indecent photos and videos of Huckle filming himself abusing girls and boys. More than 20,000 indecent images were found on his computer.
Huckle wrote a manual for pedophiles called “Pedophiles and Poverty: A Pedophile’s Guide” and a series of notes detailing rape and various sexual acts.
The encrypted manual was on Huckle’s laptop and made available for publication on the “dark web.” The first argument hearing at the Old Bailey took more than an hour to read out all the charges.
“A 3-year-old girl who’s as loyal to me as a dog would hit the jackpot, but no one seemed to care,” Huckle said, according to one of the charges.
At an earlier hearing, Judge Peter Luke QC told Huckle that the charges amounted to “very serious sexual offences” and said: “I am considering a life sentence in your case.”
A spokesperson for the NSPCC said Mr Huckle’s boasts on the internet that he “takes pleasure in abusing infants and young children” “demonstrates the depth of his twisted depravity”. Stated.
“This incident highlights the urgent need for a global effort to crack down on those who use the web to exploit and harm vulnerable young people.”
The charity also called on internet service providers to “clean these images from the web and prevent them from being viewed in the first place”.
How Huckle was caught
BBC’s Angus Crawford follows in Richard Huckle’s footsteps in Kuala Lumpur
Angus Crawford, BBC News
A word and a freckle indirectly led to Richard Huckle’s arrest.
Australian and European police were aware of a pedophile site called Love Zone hidden on the so-called dark web. It was protected by passwords, encryption, and specialized software. Users were completely anonymous.
The images and videos there were particularly disturbing, showing abuse of infants and young children.
Members had to post increasingly graphic material to remain on the site. There were tens of thousands of accounts.
Officials from Australia’s Argos task force were aware that the site’s creator had used the unusual greeting “Hiyas”.
After scouring the open internet chat rooms and forums, I found a Facebook page of a man with the same greeting.
The Facebook page was fake, but a photo of the car was identified, which led to a man named Shannon McCool, a childcare worker in Adelaide.
He was actually running a site online when a police officer walked through his door.
They took detailed photos of McCool’s hands. This is where freckles come into play. The freckles on his fingers matched exactly those seen in many abuse images.
airport arrest
In an unprecedented move, Task Force Argos assumed McCool’s identity and took over the running of the site.
Last year, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
One user that stood out was Huckle. Considering the number of children he had access to and his aggressive attitude.
Using data collected from the site and information Mr. Huckle posted on social media and other open internet sites, they determined who Mr. Huckle was and where he lived.
They alerted Britain’s National Crime Agency when they discovered he was returning to the UK for the 2014 Christmas holidays.
When he landed at Gatwick Airport, he was met by officers from the NCA’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command.
Tens of thousands of indecent images and videos were discovered on his computer and encrypted drives.
