LONDON: British paedophile Richard Huckle, who posed as a photographer and volunteer to prey on his young victims in Malaysia, will serve a minimum 25 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.
In Court 8 at the Old Bailey yesterday, judge Peter Rook handed Huckle 22 life sentences to be served concurrently.
He had earlier pleaded guilty to 71 offences against children between 6 months and 12 years old.
Huckle, in grey track bottoms and his hair in a ponytail, stood with his hands clasped as if in prayer, as he listened to Rook QC read out a catalogue of horrific and depraved sexual acts that involved as many as 200 children from what had been described as an impoverished part of Kuala Lumpur.
More than 20,000 images of his young victims were found in his laptop.
The court heard how he not only engaged in sexual acts and abuse of the children, but also encouraged the children to engage in sexual acts with each other while he watched.
He was even preparing a guide for his paedophile community, and had kept a ledger of his activities.
The pictures and videos of his offences, rapes and assaults were on a website known as TLZ — “The Love Zone”.
Rook read out a quote from the manual, in which Huckle said “impoverished kids are definitely much easier to seduce than middle-class Western kids”.
“It is a truly evil document that speaks volumes about the scale of your delusion,” Rook said.
Huckle had, in a letter of remorse read at an earlier hearing, acknowledged “the scale of the damage” he had caused.
“I completely misjudged the affections I received from these children. My low self-esteem and lack of confidence with women was no excuse to be using these children as an outlet,” Huckle had said.
He said he was “gullible to be easily influenced” by the “pathetic, perverted lust of those who drew me into the Dark Net”.
Huckle was arrested at Gatwick Airport in December 2014 when he arrived to spend Christmas with his parents.
Rook said he was in no doubt that Huckle would continue his campaign of abuse and assaults on children had he returned to Malaysia.
The court heard how he had preyed on vulnerable children from the poor community in Malaysia, while presenting himself as a photographer and a teacher.
Huckle had also said he wanted to marry one of his victims when she turned 18.
“You, in fact, systematically abused children. If you had not been arrested, you would have continued your criminal acts,” Rook told Huckle.
Huckle, from Kent, had presented himself as a practising Christian and first visited Malaysia when he was 19. It is believed that it was during this gap year in Malaysia that he groomed children for his depraved activities while doing voluntary work.
Rook told Huckle that his life “revolved around (his) obsession with (his) own sexual gratification by child sex abuse”. Huckle did not show any expression.
“It is also clear that, had you not been arrested, you planned to continue the same lifestyle using the expertise that you were keen to show off to and share with other abusers so as to continue your sexual exploitation of the children of such communities.
“I’ve been shown some of the video footage and I’m sure that your action caused immediate pain and distress... others were passive, having been groomed into submission,” Rook said, adding that Huckle had almost certainly “forever blighted the lives of his victims”.
As the judge sent him down to his cell, there was an outburst from an otherwise hushed public gallery.
A Malaysian woman, identified to be from Ipoh, shouted: “A thousand years is not enough. I know one of the families,” she cried before being led out of the gallery.
Outside the court, deputy director of Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command at the National Crime Agency, Andy Brennan, told waiting journalists that the investigation, which resulted in the sentencing yesterday morning, was, without a doubt, a “challenging investigation”.
He said investigators had pulled out all the stops to make sure that the best possible case could be presented before the court, leaving Huckle with no alternative but to plead guilty to the 71 charges.
“We worked very closely with colleagues internationally. We worked very closely with colleagues from Australia and colleagues in Malaysia.
“This has been truly an international effort. It was horrific work, having to view these images.
“This person you saw in court is very, very dangerous. The sentence reflects a deterrent to anyone engaging in these activities. He will remain a danger, no doubt, for some time,” Brennan said.
When asked when the Malaysian police were informed about Huckle, Brennan said it was in December 2014 and they were provided with all the information.
He said they had contacted the Malaysian authorities on the case on a number of occasions, disputing suggestions that the Malaysian authorities were only informed about it a month ago.
Malaysian authorities had been reported as saying that no police report had been lodged on the case in Malaysia and that was why the matter went unnoticed until Huckle was arrested in England.
Malaysian police were quoted on June 3 as saying that they did not receive any reports from Huckle’s victims or their caretakers.
Huckle will spend his time at HM Prison Belmarsh here until he is 55.
He has already spent 488 days in jail and will face more than 23 years behind bars, before a parole board can consider his release.