Pedophile Convicted in Britain ‘took Malaysian Kids to Church’

Shanghai Daily
June 4, 2016

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/world/Pedophile-convicted-in-Britain-took-Malaysian-kids-to-church/shdaily.shtml

CONFESSED British child molester Richard Huckle took Malaysian children with him to church and regularly roamed an impoverished Kuala Lumpur neighborhood to snap pictures of kids, those who met him said yesterday.

But several people said they had seen no reason to suspect Huckle of the sickening pattern of child sex abuse that could see him locked up for life.

Huckle, 30, will be sentenced on Monday, a judge said yesterday.

The sentencing for the prolific pedophile had been expected yesterday but the judge said he wanted to consider mitigating factors put before him by Huckle’s lawyers, notably a letter of remorse.

Judge Peter Rook said his sentencing would begin at England’s Old Bailey central criminal court in London at 10am on Monday.

Huckle pleaded guilty to 71 counts of child sex offences, including rape or sexual assault of children as young as six months, committed during his several years living in Malaysia. He targeted children while posing as a volunteer working with Christian communities in the Malaysian capital.

His heavily-encrypted computer and a camera contained more than 20,0000 images of child sex abuse, many of which showed him committing offences including rape.

“I’ve seen him and met some of the children he brought to the church,” said Paul Packianathan, senior pastor of a Protestant church located in a Kuala Lumpur suburb.

But Packianathan said Huckle’s church visits were infrequent and aroused “no suspicions.” He condemned Huckle’s actions as “despicable.”

Huckle was frequently seen in a predominantly Hindu neighborhood peopled largely by poor members of Malaysia’s ethnic-Indian minority from roughly 2012 to 2014, area residents said.

He claimed variously to be a student, a photographer or an English teacher, and was known to offer English lessons to children, they said.

“He behaved like a professional photographer. When we saw his picture in the newspaper we were shocked. We cannot believe he did such a thing,” said K Sumathi, 45, who sells flower garlands at the local Hindu temple.

Huckle was only caught after an investigation by British authorities who monitored his online activities, which included prolifically uploading indecent images to pedophilia forums.

Huckle was arrested in December 2014 when he returned to Britain to spend Christmas. He has pleaded guilty to 71 counts of child sex offenses.

His apparent ability to escape detection in Malaysia has caused deep embarrassment for the authorities.

Malaysian police have said they never received any reports about Huckle’s abuses and were only informed of the case by their UK counterparts in April.

Police yesterday announced for the first time that they had launched their own investigations.

“We have begun investigations. We will look into the places that he went to, the people that he met,” Law Hong Soon, deputy chief of criminal investigation in the Royal Malaysian Police, told reporters.