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Briton faces life sentences over Malaysia child abuse

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IANS London
Last Updated : Jun 02 2016 | 7:43 PM IST

A British man is facing multiple life sentences for numerous sex crimes against Malaysian children which he boasted about on the "dark web".

Richard Huckle, 30, from Ashford in Kent, admitted the offences against victims aged between six months and 12 years, from 2006 to 2014.

It is believed that Huckle abused up to 200 children.

His sentencing hearing began at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, and is expected to conclude on Friday.

The 91 charges related to 23 children from mainly poor communities in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

He admitted to 71 of the charges, and the prosecutor asked that the other counts "lie on file".

Huckle, a freelance photographer, was arrested at Gatwick Airport by National Crime Agency officials in December 2014.

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Huckle, who presented himself as a practising Christian, first visited Malaysia on a teaching gap year when he was 18 or 19.

He then went on to groom children while doing voluntary work.

Investigators uncovered numerous indecent pictures and videos Huckle took of himself abusing girls and boys. More than 20,000 indecent images were found on his computer.

Huckle wrote a paedophile manual called "Paedophiles And Poverty: Child Lover Guide", as well as a series of notes in which he detailed rapes and various sex acts.

The encrypted manual was on Huckle's laptop ready for publication on the dark web -- part of the World Wide Web that is not indexed by traditional search engines. At his first plea hearing at the Old Bailey, it took more than an hour to read out all the charges.

According to one charge, Huckle had said: "I'd hit the jackpot, a 3yo girl as loyal to me as my dog and nobody seemed to care."

--IANS

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First Published: Jun 02 2016 | 7:32 PM IST

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