British pedophile ‘regrets’ Malaysia abuses

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.