How the crimes of British paedophile Richard Huckle exposed Malaysia’s dangerous silence around abuse – and shocked authorities into action
Many in Malaysia are asking how Huckle could have gotten away with such abominable activities for so long in these close-knit communities.
In the shadows of Kuala Lumpur’s gleaming high-rises, a non-governmental organisation has started holding workshops on sexual abuse for children of a poor Indian community, once a haunt of convicted British paedophile Richard Huckle.
It took weeks to convince the 200 families in the community, which cannot under law be named in order to protect the identity of Huckle’s victims, to allow their children, some as young as four, to gain some sex education.
My freedom relies on the hush mentality of the locals on this kind of thing
“A lot of them are in denial. That’s still pretty much what is going on with the communities,” said Mariza Abdulkadir, interim executive director of Protect and Save (PS) the Children, the NGO conducting the workshops.
The NGO wanted to start the safety workshops much earlier, but they were able to get the consent only recently. She said residents told her: “Why are you here? The victims are not among us, it’s other people.”
Asked what he learned in the sex education classes, one five-year-old boy in the neighbourhood said: “No one can touch our private parts” and about “safety rules and feelings”.
Through the workshops, the NGO is hoping to get the children to talk about any abuse they might have suffered so they can get counselling and therapy, since the British police cannot disclose the identities of the victims.