Richard Huckle

Richard William Huckle was a convicted English serial sex offender and child rapist. He was arrested by Britain’s National Crime Agency after a tip-off from Australian Police and convicted of 71 counts of serious sexual assaults against children. On 6 June 2016, he was given 22 life sentences with a minimum prison term of 25 years before being eligible to apply for parole. On 13 January 2020, a fellow inmate, 29-year old Paul Fitzgerald, was charged with Huckle’s murder before being sentenced to life in prison.

About Richard Huckle in brief

Summary Richard HuckleRichard William Huckle was a convicted English serial sex offender and child rapist. He was arrested by Britain’s National Crime Agency after a tip-off from Australian Police and convicted of 71 counts of serious sexual assaults against children. On 6 June 2016, he was given 22 life sentences with a minimum prison term of 25 years before being eligible to apply for parole. On 13 January 2020, a fellow inmate, 29-year old Paul Fitzgerald, was charged with Huckle’s murder before being sentenced to life in prison. Huckle travelled extensively around south-east Asia to countries including Singapore, Laos and India. It has been revealed that, while in India, he persuaded a pastor to invite him to an orphanage in Bangalore to take photos and make videos with the children, posing as a teacher to gain trust. He has been described in print media as \”Britain’s worst ever paedophile\”. He was born into a middle-class family in Ashford, Kent, on 14 May 1986. He attended the Harvey Grammar School, Folkestone, where he was described as ‘a bit of a loner, but nothing out of the ordinary’ by friends. After leaving education, Huckle spent a gap year in Malaysia from 2005 to 2006. He returned regularly, helping out at local churches and among local communities, before moving there permanently in 2010. He enrolled onto a short CELTA course with the British Council before starting work as a freelance photographer in local communities around Kuala Lumpur. He continued to attend a church in London until the time of his re-arrest in December 2014.

He had been granted bail under the conditions that he live at his parents’ address whilst investigations were in progress. In an initial interview, Huckles admitted raping children aged three to thirteen, which his parents refused to allow him to remain to. In his initial interview Huckle made no comment throughout the interview and refused to answer questions about the allegations he had made to his mother. In doing so, police rescued 85 children from ongoing abuse and arrested hundreds. Police assumed the identity of Shannon McCoole and ran his site to catch other paedophiles. 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 a care worker from Adelaide. Upon entering his house, police discovered that McCool was online and running his website at the time. After discovering his real identity, they learned that he was due to return to the United Kingdom for Christmas with his family and immediately alerted the family. He was arrested at Gatwick airport on 19 December 2014 and questioned on suspicion of serious offences against children, but was released temporarily. On 19 October 2019, H Huckle was strangled and stabbed to death in his cell. He is survived by his wife, two children and two step-grandchildren. He also leaves behind a wife and two brothers.