Huckle a 'middle class, grammar school boy'

Huckle. - Photo from Skynews

PETALING JAYA: Richard Huckle grew up like every normal middle-class British boy.

Baptised at the age of 17, Huckle visited churches and helped out at Sunday schools and was an average student when he left school.

Sky News said Huckle spent three months on a placement at a Christian church in Kuala Lumpur in a community he had befriended in the United Kingdom. He then returned regularly to Malaysia offering to help teach at schools and churches.

He even started to groom children while doing voluntary work in Kuala Lumpur.

For legal reasons, the community or churches where Huckle was involved with could not be revealed.

In 2008, Huckle took a short English teacher training course at the British Council's offices in Kuala Lumpur. He also appeared in a promotional video.

Huckle, 30, has admitted to a string of paedophile offences ranging from raping babies, toddlers, girls and boys from 2006 to 2014. His victims aged between six months and 12 years.

Sky News said Huckle “is one of the most prolific paedophiles ever to have been brought before a UK court.”

It was reported that Huckle filmed and photographed much of the abuse. He even shared it with other paedophiles on the internet.

He posted commentaries with the images.

• Stop sexual abuse: Teach your kids to say NO!

“It's quite amazing to have stuck with the same child lover for so many years and I hope, from the images you have seen, enjoyed watching her grow.

“It's not often in child porn you can compare the bodies of a 5yo and a 12yo that are the same girl. I'm sure I'll have plenty more sex with (her) in the future," Huckle wrote.

Over 20,000 indecent photographs were found on his computer when he was caught at London's Gatwick Airport in 2014 as he came home to Britain from Malaysia for Christmas.

His arrest came after Australian authorities had alerted UK's National Crime Agency to his crimes.

It was reported that Huckle wrote a paedophile manual called "Paedophiles And Poverty: Child Lover Guide", he also kept a series of notes where he detailed rapes and other sex acts.

The encrypted manual was on Huckle's laptop, ready for publication on the "dark web".

At his first plea hearing at the Central Criminal Court of England, it took more than an hour to read out all the charges.

In January, Huckle pleaded not guilty to all 91 charges. But ahead of his trial in April, he admitted to 71 of the offences over the course of five more hearings.

According to one charge, Huckle had bragged: "I'd hit the jackpot, a 3yo girl as loyal to me as my dog and nobody seemed to care."

His sentencing hearing began at the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday, and is expected to conclude on Friday.

According to reports, Huckle is the third British man convicted under a recent British law that allows the UK prosecution of "sex tourists".