27 Facts About Richard Huckle

Richard William Huckle was an English serial child rapist.

Richard Huckle was born into a middle-class family in Ashford, Kent, on 14 May 1986.

Richard Huckle was a regular worshipper at Ashford Baptist Church, where he was described as a quiet man.

Richard Huckle was a member of a church in London, which he continued to attend up until the time of his re-arrest in December 2014.

Richard Huckle returned to the country regularly, helping out at local churches and among local communities, before moving there in 2010.

Richard Huckle enrolled in a short CELTA course with the British Council before starting work as a freelance photographer in local communities around Kuala Lumpur.

Richard Huckle was arrested at Gatwick Airport on 19 December 2014.

On 19 December 2014, Richard Huckle was arrested by officers from Britain's National Crime Agency at London's Gatwick Airport and questioned on suspicion of serious offences against children.

Richard Huckle's arrest followed an earlier tip-off from Task Force Argos, a highly specialised branch of Australia's Queensland Police Service responsible for the investigation of online child exploitation and abuse.

Richard Huckle initially refused to answer questions and was bailed under the condition that he stay at his parents' house, though his laptop was seized.

Richard Huckle had been granted bail under the conditions that he live at his parents' address while investigations were in progress.

Richard Huckle had no criminal record and was in no positions of responsibility concerning minors.

Richard Huckle drunkenly admitted to raping children aged three to thirteen, at which point his parents refused to allow him to remain in the house.

Richard Huckle was denied bail by the police and remanded to court where his next application for bail was denied; Huckle was imprisoned at HMP Lewes before, due to the severity of the charges, being transferred to HMP Belmarsh in London to await trial.

At an initial hearing at the Old Bailey, in January 2016, Richard Huckle pleaded not guilty to all 91 charges, which took over an hour to read in court.

Richard Huckle's victims ranged in age from 6 months to 12 years old; one was abused while wearing a nappy, and another was abused for a number of years between the ages of 5 and 12.

Richard Huckle belonged to a website called The Love Zone on the dark web, which is obscured from general discovery and only accessible by anonymised means.

Richard Huckle boasted about his crimes to other paedophiles, posting such comments as "Hit the jackpot, a three-year-old girl as loyal to me as my dog and nobody seemed to care" and "impoverished kids are definitely much easier to seduce than middle-class kids".

The hearings revealed some of the stratagems Richard Huckle employed to procure victims, such as taking children out on day trips from orphanages and escorting them home from their own birthday party.

Richard Huckle had even talked about marrying one of his young victims so that he could set up a foster home and abuse "a cycle of children" who would pass through his home.

Richard Huckle created a ledger of his abuses in which he scored the scale of abuse he inflicted upon each victim.

Richard Huckle's sentencing hearing began at the Old Bailey on 1 June 2016 and lasted until 3 June 2016, with the sentence itself being passed on 6 June 2016.

At the start of the hearing, the judge stated that Richard Huckle should expect to go to prison for a very long time, as he was considering multiple life sentences due to the gravity of the offences committed.

On 6 June 2016 the National Crime Agency referred itself to the police watchdog the Independent Police Complaints Commission, since they were aware of Richard Huckle's continued attendance at two churches in the UK up until the time of his re-arrest in January 2015 but did not contact them until sentencing had already begun.

The IPCC will look into whether the NCA had acted appropriately and whether more could have been done to determine whether Richard Huckle abused any children in the UK through his relationship with the churches.

Richard Huckle completed a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults course in 2008 which provides training to individuals to teach adult learners.

On 13 October 2019, Richard Huckle was found dead at the age of 33 in his cell at Full Sutton prison in the East Riding of Yorkshire.