Richard Huckle

Richard William Huckle (14 May 1986 – 13 October 2019) was an English serial child sex offender. He was arrested by Britain's National Crime Agency in 2014 after a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police and convicted in 2016 of 71 charges of sexual offences against children, committed while he posed as a Christian teacher and a freelance photographer in Malaysia.

The enormity of the charges against him has led to him being described by the press as Britain's most depraved paedophile. On 6 June 2016, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of twenty-five years before he would be eligible for parole.

On 13 October 2019, Huckle was subject to a prolonged torture murder in which he was tied up, beaten, strangled, sexually assaulted, and repeatedly stabbed; a blade was also lodged in his brain via the nose. On 13 January 2020, a fellow inmate, 29-year-old Paul Fitzgerald, was charged with Huckle's murder. Fitzgerald, who had several previous convictions for violent and sexual offences, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 34 years on 24 November 2020.

Early life

Richard Huckle was born into a middle-class family in Ashford, Kent, on 14 May 1986. He was educated at the Harvey Grammar School, Folkestone, where he was described as "a bit of a loner, but nothing out of the ordinary" by friends. At the age of 16, he took part in a month-long expedition to visit a school in Namibia, after which he began study at the nearby South Kent College.

Huckle was a regular worshipper at Ashford Baptist Church, where he was described as a quiet man. He was also a member of a church in London, which he continued to attend up until the time of his re-arrest in December 2014.

Time in Malaysia

After leaving education, Huckle spent a gap year in Malaysia from 2005 to 2006. He returned to the country regularly, helping out at local churches and among local communities, before moving there in 2010.

Huckle enrolled in a short CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) course with the British Council before starting work as a freelance photographer in local communities around Kuala Lumpur. Hoping to further his career and status within the community, he also enrolled in an information technology (IT) study course at Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan University College. He did not complete his studies.

During the years of 2011 and 2012, Huckle did part-time photography for Nike Football Club Malaysia. There were no reports of abuse in the club. In addition to Malaysia, where all of the crimes he was convicted of occurred, Huckle is known to have kidnapped two sisters, aged 4 and 6, in Cambodia in 2006. In India, he persuaded a pastor to invite him to an orphanage in Bangalore to take photos and make videos with the children, offering to make promotional videos for the orphanage.

Sexual offences

Initial arrest

On 19 December 2014, Huckle was arrested by officers from Britain's National Crime Agency at London's Gatwick Airport and questioned on suspicion of serious offences against children. His arrest followed an earlier tip-off from Task Force Argos, a highly specialised branch of Australia's Queensland Police Service responsible for the investigation of online child exploitation and abuse. Huckle initially refused to answer questions and was bailed under the condition that he stay at his parents' house, though his laptop was seized. The following day, he admitted the child sex abuse to his mother and reacted extremely angry and upset that she and his father immediately called the police to take him away.

Background of arrest

Police officers from Task Force Argos had been aware of a network of paedophiles operating on a dark web network called The Love Zone (TLZ). They noticed one member who always made posts using the unusual greeting "hiyas" and had a distinctive freckle on one of his fingers. Officers used social media and chat rooms to track down the individual, eventually finding a Facebook page that appeared to be a match. The profile was fake but photos of a vehicle led police to Shannon McCoole, a care worker from Adelaide. A warrant was issued for the arrest of McCoole. Upon entering his house, police discovered that McCoole was online and running his website at the time.