One of Britain's worst paedophiles, Richard Huckle, who abused up to 200 Malaysian children, has been handed 22 life sentences with a minimum term of 25 years at the Old Bailey.
Huckle, 30, from Ashford in Kent, had admitted an unprecedented number of offences against children aged up to 12 years old between 2006 and 2014.
The freelance photographer bragged about his crimes on the “dark web” and compiled a paedophile manual.
Twenty three children from mainly poor Christian communities in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur were identified in 91 charges, although it is believed Huckle abused up to 200 young victims.
Huckle, who presented himself as a practising Christian, took in the families of his victims by posing as a respectable English teacher doing good work abroad.
He first visited Malaysia on a teaching gap year when he was 18 or 19 and went on to groom children while doing voluntary work.
Huckle was arrested as he arrived at Gatwick Airport by National Crime Agency officials on December 19, 2014 as he came home for Christmas, the Press Association reported.
They uncovered numerous indecent pictures and videos Huckle took of himself abusing the girls and boys during his visits to the Far East. In all, 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 “Pedopoints ledger” in which he detailed rapes and various sex acts.
The manual was on an encrypted space on Huckle’s laptop ready for publication on the “dark web” through a hyperlink.
His “Pedopoints” ledger was a private record of the children he had abused. He had made it a game of different types of indecent activities. Under the rules, he could not score for the same activity for the same child in the same week.
The ledger was also on an encrypted part of his laptop and he had written about the Pedopoints on a members-only paedophile site called TLZ (The Love Zone) which has since been closed down.
Huckle was also accused of attempting to crowd-fund his abuse online using Bitcoin on a website called PedoFunding.
According to Sky News, as he was sentenced on Monday, a woman in the public gallery shouted: "1,000 deaths is too good for you."
Judge Peter Rook QC told him: "You have pleaded guilty to as many as 71 sexual offences. It is very rare indeed that a judge has to sentence sexual offending by one person on such a scale as this."
An NSPCC spokesman said: “Huckle is a frighteningly depraved paedophile, who bragged about raping babies and delighted in abusing infants who trusted him. He left a trail of devastation and his sentence reflects the severity of his crimes which have shattered so many young lives.
"It is horrifying that Huckle was able to profit from this appalling abuse by using the web to sell images and even films to other paedophiles; emphasising the importance, yet again, of the need for a cohesive, global effort from both the authorities and internet services providers to combat this vile trade."
More to follow...