LONDON: A British serial paedophile who preyed on impoverished Kuala Lumpur slum children voiced deep remorse before a London court on Friday for his “disgusting behavior.”
Richard Huckle, 30, who has pleaded guilty to 71 of 91 counts of child sex offenses, including rape, targeted children while posing as a volunteer working with Christian communities in the Malaysian capital.
More than 20,000 images of child sex abuses were found on his heavily-encrypted laptop.
Huckle appeared in the dock at London’s Old Bailey criminal court where judge Peter Rook heard mitigation from his lawyer Philip Sapsford.
Rook said he would have to weigh up whether a life sentence was appropriate for 22 of the most serious counts before passing sentence at 10 a.m. on Monday.
Sapsford asked for leniency, arguing that in pleading guilty, his client had spared a jury from being exposed to images of his abuse.
He accepted it would be “a very long time” before Huckle was released from prison but asked that the sentence give his client “hope” of rehabilitation into society.
Huckle had bragged about his abuse online and was snared by an Australian investigation on the dark web, a hard-to-access part of the Internet often used for illegal activity.
In the letter of remorse written on May 23 and read to the court by his lawyer, Huckle acknowledged “the scale of the damage I have caused.”
“I completely misjudged the affections I received from these children.
“My low self-esteem and lack of confidence with women was no excuse to be using these children as an outlet.”
He said he was “gullible to be easily influenced” by the “pathetic, perverted lust of those who drew me into the dark net.”
And he said he hoped there would be help for the victims of the “disgusting behavior I performed on them.”
“I am open and eager to rehabilitate from this offending behavior,” he wrote.
“In no way do I want to be treated as a martyr to child sex tourism in Malaysia.
“This was all my own doing as a consequence of my own immaturities.
“I am deeply remorseful and regretful of what has happened and will do all I can in being proactive toward rehabilitating myself.”
The Old Bailey heard earlier that Huckle targeted poor victims and was writing a guide to child abuse that he intended to publish for profit.
British pedophile ‘regrets’ Malaysia abuses
British pedophile ‘regrets’ Malaysia abuses
Guinea confirms detention of 16 Sierra Leonean soldiers
- Guinea said late Tuesday the soldiers entered the Koudaya district in the Faranah region without authorization
- Guinea said its forces seized their equipment and supplies
CONAKRY: Guinea’s military confirmed the detention of 16 Sierra Leonean soldiers after accusing them of crossing the border and raising their flag on Guinean soil.
The two West African countries have been involved in a border dispute for more than two decades, stemming from the Sierra Leonean Civil War between 1991 and 2002. Sierra Leone’s government had invited Guinea to help defend its eastern borders during the war, but the Guinean troops didn’t completely withdraw after the war.
The GuineanMinistry of National Defense said in a statement, issued late Tuesday, the soldiers entered the district of Koudaya in Faranah, a border region in Guinea, without authorization, where they“set up a tent and raised their national flag”. Guinean authorities also seized their equipment and supplies.
The Sierra Leonean authorities earlier Tuesday said several members of a security unit, including an officer, had been apprehended while making bricks fora border post in Kalieyereh in the district of Falaba on Monday.
Last year, the Guinean military entered a mineral-rich border town in Sierra Leone, reigniting the tension.
