Richard Huckle: Man arrested on suspicion of murdering ‘one of worst paedophiles’ in Britain

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A 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a sex offender believed to be one of Britain’s most dangerous paedophiles in prison.

Richard Huckle, 33, was found stabbed to death in his cell at HMP Full Sutton in East Yorkshire on 13 October last year.

He was serving 22 life sentences at the time of the attack, having admitted dozens of sexual offences against children in Malaysia.

Humberside Police said on Monday that they were awaiting a charging decision from the Crown Prosecution Service.

“A 29-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the death of a man at HMP Full Sutton on October 13 2019,” the force said in a statement.

“A file has been submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and we are awaiting their decision regarding charges.”

Huckle, a freelance photographer who first visited Malaysia aged 18 or 19 during a gap year, preyed on victims in poor neighbourhoods of the capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Posing as an English teacher and Christian volunteer, he abused children from the age of six months to 12 years between 2006 and 2014.

He wrote a paedophile manual titled “Child Lover Guide” and awarded himself “Pedopoints” for different acts of abuse against 191 youngsters.

Huckle even tried to earn money on the dark web by crowdfunding videos of him abusing a three-year-old girl.

He was arrested at Gatwick Airport in 2014 when he returned to the UK to spend Christmas with his family. More than 20,000 indecent pictures and videos were found on his computer.

After pleading guilty at the Old Bailey to 71 sexual offences, including multiple rapes, he wrote a letter to the court blaming his “immaturities” and the “pathetic, perverted lust of those who drew me into the dark net”.

When Huckle was sentenced, Detective Superintendent Matthew Long, from the NCA, described him as “one of the most committed, manipulative, and conniving paedophiles we have ever come across", adding that he had “based his whole life around the abuse of children”.

In 2016 he was told he would serve a minimum of 23 years in prison before being considered for parole.

Additional reporting by Press Association