Britain’s worst paedophile abused over 200 children across the world

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Britain’s worst paedophile abused over 200 children across the world

2017-09-29 12:37 Last Updated At：12:37

Britain’s worst paedophile, Richard Huckle, who backpacked around the world preying on youngsters in Asia, was given life sentences after pleading guilty to abusing young children and even babies. His crime took place not only in Malaysia, but also Cambodia and India.

BBC journalist Bronagh Munro uncovered Huckle’s diary while producing a documentary about the former poster boy for the British Council in Malaysia. The diary revealed that Huckle’s known victims are not only Malaysian. He even videotaped the whole process, shared it online, and wrote a manual to instruct other paedophiles on how to do it themselves.

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In 2016, Huckle faced 91 charges, which include sexual assault and indignation against 23 children in Kuala Lumpur. He was convicted to 71 offences (45 of them related to sexual assault) and was given 22 life sentences. His youngest victim was six-month-old. The judge at his trial noted that his victims were likely to number around 200.

Huckle was 19 years old when he first set out for his gap year from the UK to Malaysia in 2006. He was eventually arrested in London Gatwick Airport on December 2014, as he returned home from Malaysia for Christmas. Police said that he was carrying a heavily-encrypted computer and camera that contained over 20,000 images of child sex abuse.

According to Munro, Huckle participated in the Gap Year Challenge programme, in which he masqueraded as a devoted Christian and English teacher, gaining access to children through churches, schools and orphanages in Malaysia. He gave children alcohol and drugs, molested them and shared his acts with other paedophiles on the dark web, boasting about how easy it was.

Huckle deliberately targeted the city’s poorest and most vulnerable communities. He exploited his status as a white man to gain their trust, and then abused their children. A girl who was molested by him since the age of 3 was told to ‘shut up’, when she revealed this to her parents. The topic of child sexual assault is still a taboo in Malaysia.

Munro also pointed out that Huckle had been to the slump of India and Cambodia, the ‘paradise’ for pedophilia, where child abuse happens very often. However, the British government and the Indian authorities did not trace or investigate his crime in the areas – even though, from his diary it was clear that he did abuse a 2-year old girl of the host family, where he stayed in Cambodia. Munro highly suspected that he had committed the same offence in the United Kingdom.

Iran soccer players meet FIFA head Infantino before World Cup warmup and honor child victims of war

ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) — FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Tuesday promised to “continue to support” Iran’s preparations for the World Cup as he met the Iranian national team for the first time since the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on the country a month ago.

Infantino spoke with Iran’s players and soccer federation officials after flying in from Florida to the Turkish coastal resort Antalya where the team played one of its last warmup games for the tournament, which the United States will co-host with Canada and Mexico.

“FIFA will continue to support the team to ensure the best possible conditions as they prepare for the World Cup,” Infantino wrote Tuesday in an Instagram post sent after he left Turkey.

As the Iranian anthem played before the friendly against Costa Rica, players and officials including coach Amir Ghalenoei and federation vice president Mehdi Mohammad Nabi posed with pictures of children allegedly killed by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes since Feb. 28.

The war has raised doubts about Iran’s participation in the World Cup with often conflicting public comments from Iranian government and soccer officials, and U.S. President Donald Trump in the past month.

Iran is due to play two group-stage games in Inglewood, California, and one in Seattle.

Iranian officials suggested moving the team’s group stage games to Mexico after Trump discouraged the team from attending the tournament, citing safety concerns.

The FIFA leader has repeatedly said Iran will stick to the World Cup schedule. In Mexico City last weekend, Infantino told broadcaster N+ Univision there is only “Plan A” and no back-up options for Iran to play its games as agreed in December after the World Cup tournament draw was made.

All the crosstalk and leverage plays have been against a backdrop of escalating conflict in the Middle East that has roiled global diplomacy and economies.

Iran is a soccer power in Asia and widely seen as good enough to advance to the knockout rounds after playing New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt in the group stage. If so, the U.S. is a potential opponent in the round of 32.

On Tuesday, Iran’s players easily beat Costa Rica 5-0 in a game played without fans after meeting with Infantino at their hotel.

The players' gesture came after they held small backpacks on Friday before another warmup against Nigeria, to honor the victims of a deadly missile strike on an elementary school in southern Iran. More than 165 people were killed, most of them children, in the Feb. 28 strike likely launched by the U.S.

Neither the United States nor Israel has accepted responsibility for the attack which has been widely criticized by the United Nations and human rights groups. The U.S. military is investigating and has said it would never target civilians.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer