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Richard Huckle admitted a string of charges of sexual crimes against children in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AFP

‘This monster defiled our kids’: Malaysia recoils in disgust as details of British paedophile’s crimes revealed

Richard Huckle pleaded guilty to 71 charges of sexual offences against 23 children aged between six months and 13 years from an impoverished Christian community in Kuala Lumpur.

A British paedophile who faces multiple life sentences for abusing Malaysian babies and young children dreamed of marrying one of his victims and becoming a foster carer so he could abuse “a cycle of children” coming through his home, a British court has been told.

Richard Huckle, 30, boasted on an online paedophile forum that he hoped to “mould” the young girl into turning a blind eye to his abuse for fear of losing her “middle-class” lifestyle.

Huckle, a freelance photographer from Ashford, Kent, has pleaded guilty to 71 charges of sexual offences against 23 identified children aged between six months and 13 years from an impoverished Christian community in Kuala Lumpur. Huckle had posed as a Christian philanthropist and teacher to gain access to children.

I’d like a cycle of children to come through staying at my house
Richard Huckle

Malaysian authorities are pressing Britain for information on Huckle’s child sex crimes, hoping to reach out to his dozens of victims and possibly launch their own investigations, police have said.

Huckle’s trial in London has stirred outrage in Malaysia as details have emerged on a string of sex attacks he committed on poor children.

Investigators found over 20,000 indecent images on his computer. He also kept a ledger of his attacks and wrote a manual called Paedophiles And Poverty: Child Lover Guide.

Ong Chin Lan, assistant director of a special division dealing with such crimes, said Malaysian police still do not know the identities of Huckle’s victims.

They hope to get details from Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) after he is sentenced.

“We have asked for the information repeatedly and will continue to press them for more information for follow-up action,” Ong was quoted as saying by state-run Bernama news agency. “So far, the victims have not been identified and the NCA only informed us about the incident about one month ago.”

A sentencing hearing was expected to be concluded on Friday.

The case has sparked revulsion in Malaysia, with newspapers on Friday plastering photos of Huckle on their front pages along with angry headlines.

Leading daily The Star’s banner headline read: “This monster defiled our kids.”

Huckle photographed and put online thousands of images of the abuse, which led to his detection and arrest by British police.

Ong said authorities were making plans to provide help to the victims, once they are identified. A hotline for victim’s families and anyone else with knowledge of his crimes also has been set up.

Huckle is reported to have preyed upon children from families in Muslim-majority Malaysia’s Christian community.

At his sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey, Brian O’Neill QC, prosecuting, said after his arrest Huckle told a psychiatrist he wanted to “put all this madness behind me” and, when released from prison, wanted to seek a South Indian woman.

But O’Neill invited the judge to read an online posting by Huckle 18 months before his arrest, found on an online forum on the darknet, since taken down.

In it Huckle wrote of his love of South Asia because “the kids are adorable and their families are easy to get along with” so “you can easily play along and do what you want, within limits, with their kids”.

He wrote of having sexual contact with children from one family, “and although the family obviously doesn’t approve they try to work around it as they know I can be a potentially valuable asset to them in the future”.

He wrote that he hoped to marry one of the girls whom he had known since she was seven and thought he could “influence her young mind to mould her into the perfect wife”. But, he said, she “strongly disapproves” of him having sex with her and her family members.

“My ambition, once married, would be for our family to be foster carers,” he wrote.

“Though I would like my own kids, only one or two, I am not a big fan of incest. So even though it’s very risky I’d like a cycle of children to come through staying at my house, and, depending on the child’s character, would depend how far I would take things (I’d never push a child out of their comfort zone).”

He added he would hope to influence his young wife “into not reporting me as I would make it clear to her that she would lose her ‘middle class’ lifestyle if I got busted”.

He would rather have “complete control” over children any time of the day, rather than “just visiting at weekends and getting lucky”, O’Neill read aloud to the court.

Though I would like my own kids, only one or two, I am not a big fan of incest
Richard Huckle

Marriage to a Western woman wasn’t for “a paedo”, Huckle wrote. “There are some you would be safe with but they would be extremely unattractive”, but, he added “you could get away with a lot more” if you married a South Asian girl.

Huckle was thrown out by his parents when he admitted the abuse, the court was told. He was arrested at Gatwick airport flying home for Christmas in 2014, refused to answer any questions, and was bailed to his parents’ address. The following day his mother asked him about the allegations.

“He admitted to her that he had had sexual activity with children aged three-13,” said O’Neill. “His mother was both extremely upset and extremely angry; she and his father called the police and asked them to take their son away, making clear they did not want him under their roof.”

Huckle had posted video and pictures of himself raping children, which were shared online on the darknet.

Huckle’s defence argued in mitigation that he had not inflicted any physical pain on his victims, but the prosecution said that “clear sounds of distress” were heard on the videos.

Other videos showed children forced to sexually abuse each other, abuse being committed as other children watched, children being urinated on and other victims forced to hold up signs advertising the paedophile website, which had thousands of members.

O’Neill told judge Peter Rook the extent of Huckle’s abuse was likely to be greater as investigators had been unable to access six password-protected, heavily encrypted files on his computer.

The judge could infer “that there are numerous other indecent images of the sexual abuse of children hidden within the encrypted space to which Huckle has denied the investigators access”, said O’Neill.

However, prosecutors had been able to access more than 20,000 indecent images of children, as well as a “Paedopoints” ledger which Huckle had created to award himself points for acts of depravity on children. A total of 191 children were mentioned on his scorecard.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

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