5 Sickening Facts About Paedophile Richard Huckle

The BBC has reported that Richard Huckle, 30, has been given 22 life sentences. That sounds like a lot, though in actual fact he has about 23 years in jail before a parole board can technically set this maniac free again. Technically, with very good behaviour and a gullible parole board, Richard Huckle will be 53 when he gets out on parole. Let's hope that day never comes. Just so the world never forgets, here is a list of the facts related to his case:

1. His crimes took place between March 2006 and December 2014.

That's over eight years. He first arrived in Malaysia when he was 18 or 19 and returned to Malaysia to pursue a diploma in Information Technology and Computing at Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan University and completed his course in 2012. He admitted to 22 charges of rape against children.

2. He wrote a manual titled "Paedophiles And Poverty: Child Lover Guide"

Judge Peter Rook who handed the life sentences to Huckle quoted a line from his book in which Huckle said "impoverished kids are definitely much easier to seduce than middle-class Western kids." On his computer, authorities found more than 20,000 indecent pictures and a series of notes that details rapes and his various acts. It took more than an hour to read out all the charges against him. 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." He even tried to make a business out of his abuse by crowd-funding the release of the images. He accepted bitcoin, the online currency, to continue the abuse of the three-year-old girl and achieved 105% of his target.

3. He was part of a 45,000 member paedophile group

Huckle's arrest stemmed from an Argos investigation into South Australian paedophile Shannon McCoole. After McCoole was arrested, detectives secretly took over his online identity while identifying the group's most prominent members. Richard Huckle was one of them.

4. He posted regularly on his website, True Love Zone and planned to marry one of his victims

He posted in 2013 that he had "fallen in love" with South Asia and its "adorable kids". "I have gotten particularly close with one family whom I have known about six years. I have sexual contact with four of the girls in that family and, though the family obviously does not approve it, they try to work around it as they know I can be a potentially valuable asset to them in future."

5. His laptop contained a ledger which details the abuse of 191 victims

Often he used his status as a foreigner to gain the trust of impoverished communities. His abuse against children in Malaysia ranged from six months to 12 years old. He also abused children in Cambodia and India. Some of the children were abused for years, one of which was from age 3 till 10.

The full judgement by Judge Peter Rook QC at the Old Bailey can be read here. Be warned though, the descriptions are graphic.