Richard Huckle is one of the most popular and richest Photographer who was born on May 14, 1986 in Ashford, England, United Kingdom. The full extent of Huckle’s crimes was revealed for the first-time during the hearings. Brian O’Neill, QC, the prosecution presented evidence that Huckle committed a series of crimes which began in Huckle’s gap year of 2006 and continued for between eight and nine years before he was arrested in 2014. These included the rape and distribution of child pornography to children under 12, child abuse, possession and distribution, and creation of child pornography. His victims were aged between 6 and 12 years. One was abused in a nappy and another for many years. Huckle was a member of The Love Zone, a dark web website that is hidden from public view and accessible only by anonymous means. He shared images of his crimes with others on the website. He posted comments about his crimes to other paedophiles such as “Hit The Jackpot, a three year-old girl as loyal as my dog and nobody seemed care” and “Impoverished children are definitely easier to seduce then middle-class kids.” He admitted to sexually abusing four children from the same family in a series post. He was awarded points for sexually abusing children. However, he could not earn points if he used the same child twice in the same week. Prosecutors revealed 29 victims, more than 20,000 photos, and videos. However, they believe there could have been 200 victims from Southeast Asia. They also suspect that Huckle may have thousands of photos hidden in encrypted areas on Huckle’s computer, which authorities are unable to access. Because he refused to give police access to the encrypted data, the vast majority of his child abuse was not recovered. Only a small percentage of his videos, photographs and other documents were found by police.
Police assumed the identity of McCoole and ran his site to catch other paedophiles. In doing so, police rescued 85 children from ongoing abuse and arrested hundreds. One member that stood out was Huckle, due to the number of children he had abused and the attitude of his posts. After discovering his real identity, they learned that he was due to return to the United Kingdom to spend Christmas with his family and immediately alerted the National Crime Agency. He was arrested at Gatwick airport on 19 December 2014.
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 on-line child exploitation and abuse. Huckle initially refused to answer officers’ questions and was bailed under the condition that he stay at his parents’ house, while his camera, mobile phone, laptop and computer hard drives were seized.
Huckle spent a gap-year in Malaysia between 2005 and 2006. After returning to Malaysia, he worked in local churches and helped out with local communities before moving permanently to Malaysia in 2010.
Huckle was charged under Section 72 of 2003’s Sexual Offences Act. This allows British nationals to be tried in the United Kingdom and convicted for child sex offenses committed overseas. This is a strategy known as extraterritorial jurisdiction, and it was welcomed by child protection organizations.
Richard Huckle completed a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) course in 2008 which provides training to individuals to teach adult learners. Following the course, we have no records to indicate he was ever engaged as a teacher in Malaysia with us, either for adult students or children.
