Richard Huckle: Paedophile faces multiple life sentences for abusing ‘up to 200 children’ in Malaysia

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A freelance photographer who targeted children while working in Malaysia faces multiple life sentences after admitting 71 offences of child abuse.

Richard Huckle, 30, from Ashford in Kent, confessed to an unprecedented number of offences against children between the ages of six months to 12-years-old from 2006 and 2014.

Of the offences he pleaded guilty to, 22 carry discretionary life sentences and 18 of these are multiple incident counts.

Huckle gained access to the children in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur while posing as a Christian English teacher doing good deeds.

23 victims from mainly poor Christian families were identified, although it is believed Huckle may have abused up to 200 young victims.

He first visited Malaysia on a teaching gap year when he was 18 or 19 and went on to groom children while doing voluntary work.

Huckle, a practicing Christian, was arrested on arrival at Gatwick Airport by National Crime Agency officials on 19 December 2014 when he came home for Christmas.

Officers uncovered a large amount of indecent pictures and videos Huckle took of himself abusing the girls and boys during his visits to the Far East. More than 20,000 indecent images were found on his computer.

Huckle wrote a paedophile manual entitled Paedophiles And Poverty: Child Lover Guide as well as a Pedopoints ledger in which he detailed rapes and various sex acts.

The manual was on an encrypted space on Huckle's laptop ready for publication on the "dark web" through a hyperlink.

His Pedopoints ledger was a private record of the children he had abused. He had made it a game of different types of indecent activities.

Under the rules, he could not receive points for the same activity with the same child in the same week.

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

It took more than an hour to read out all the charges at his first plea hearing at the Old Bailey.

At an earlier hearing, Judge Peter Rook QC said: "You have pleaded guilty to 71 counts. As you know these amount to sexual offending of the utmost gravity and as a result I am considering life sentences in your case.

"I am also considering the minimum sentence you must serve. In any event you must expect a very long sentence in this case given that it comes into the category of cases of exceptional gravity.

"As everyone in this court will know, there is no distinction made between victims here or victims overseas. The cases are regarded as the utmost gravity in both cases."

Included in the charges, 14 were for rape, five digital penetration, 31 sexual assaults, six grooming offences so children were exposing or touching themselves or other children sexually; 12 counts were for taking photographs, one count was for making photographs and one of advertising indecent photographs plus one of arranging or facilitating child sex offences relating to the manual.

His sentencing is expected to conclude at the Old Bailey on Friday.