The Extensive Scourge of Paedophilia

By Ashwin Kumar, Timothy Achariam & Keshia Mahmood
Sun Daily
June 2, 2016

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1823789

Richard Huckle, 30, targeted a poverty-stricken Christian community in Malaysia, where he posed as a photographer and English teacher to win the trust of his victims' parents. Huckle, has been called Britain's worst ever pedophile.

Unicef Malaysia yesterday said the Huckle case was only the tip of the iceberg and merely "a small part of the horrific trade in child pornography and the extensive scourge of paedophilia" worldwide.

"Unicef data also reveals that there are high levels of sexual exploitation of children online and an average of five child victims of online sexual abuse is identified by Interpol and police partners every day.

"The number of webpages containing child sexual abuse material grew by 147% from 2012 to 2014, with girls and children 10 years old or younger depicted in 80% of these materials," it said.

In addition to the Child Cyber Sexual Investigation unit set up by the police last month, Unicef emphasised that there needs to be sufficient monitoring and surveillance mechanisms including a registry of sex offenders, to ensure offenders are stopped before they do further harm to children.

Women's Centre for Change executive director Loh Cheng Kooi, in condemning the case, called it "mind-boggling" that none of the children Huckle had sexually attacked confided in an adult about the abuses they were subjected to.

She said this shows the extent of Huckle's immaculate "sexual grooming" skills.

"Often in these cases, the offender grooms their victims well by making friends with the child to earn their trust, so the child does not understand that what is being done to them is a crime," she explained.

According to Loh, the main question which should be addressed is if the "frightening" acts of crime could have been stopped sooner through intervention by parents or church authorities.

"These are serious cases of sexual assault. The question is, were there no parents that the children confided in? Did the church authorities not know about this?," she questioned.

"If the church did receive complaints but did not do anything about it, then it shows a lack of action by the very people who are supposed to take care of these children," she stressed.

Meanwhile, PKR communications director, Fahmi Fadzil questioned how the government allowed Richard Huckle to enter and reenter the country throughout the years, a move which highlights major security concerns.

He demanded to know if the Malaysian Immigration Department was aware that Huckle was on the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) wanted list

when he was leaving for London in December 2014.

Fahmi then asked why Huckle was even allowed to leave the country if the department had known of his wanted status.

Meanwhile, a local activist has revealed the existence of a paedophile group purportedly involving locals in the country.

Syed Azmi Alhabshi posted screenshots of a chat group involving paedophilia which included photos of children and sexually explicit discussions.

"When this issue came out yesterday, some people now are aware and some even feel scared. But do you know there is another group that becomes curious and later on interested to venture into it.

"I am sharing this as an awareness post to show how close to home the case is. They cannot afford subscription online and as such these groups are more dangerous. And they can be among us," he said.

When contacted, the British High Commission in Malaysia declined to comment as the case is still under investigation by the UK's National Crime Agency.