Brutal prison death of 'Britain's worst paedophile' Richard Huckle

A man has been arrested in connection with the death of Richard Huckle, one of Britain's worst paedophiles, who posted on the so-called "dark web" as he abused up to 200 Malaysian children.

Huckle was found dead on October 13 last year at Full Sutton prison in Yorkshire, where he was serving 22 life sentence for his vile catalogue of crimes.

He was reportedly stabbed with a makeshift blade.

More gruesome details have now been revealed about how the notorious child abuser died, with a source telling The Sun: "He wasn't just stabbed. He was strangled with a guitar string."

The Sun also reported that Huckle allegedly had ballpoint pens and condoms shoved down his throat.

Earlier this week Humberside Police said a 29-year-old man had been arrested in connection with the death.

Freelance photographer Huckle, from Ashford in Kent, was jailed in 2016 for an unprecedented number of offences against children aged between six months and 12 years from 2006 to 2014.

Judge Peter Rook QC gave the 30-year-old 22 life sentences and ordered him to serve a minimum term of 25 years.

"Campaign of rape"

A stream of pictures and videos of his rapes and assaults on children were shared with paedophiles worldwide through a now-defunct dark website.

He even tried to make a business out of his horrific crimes by crowd-funding the release of the images and was compiling a paedophile's manual at the time of his arrest by the National Crime Agency.

Twenty-three children from poor Christian communities in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur were identified in 71 charges, although Huckle's tally of abuse which he catalogued on a "Pedopoints ledger" was much higher.

Huckle was jailed in 2016. Photo / Supplied

In sentencing, Judge Rook 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."

Huckle was consumed by and obsessed with his own sexual gratification, he said.

And his "campaign of rape" was of "deep concern", the judge said.

As Huckle was sent down, a woman in the public gallery shouted out that "1000 deaths is too good for you".

20,000 indecent pictures and videos

Huckle first visited Malaysia on a teaching gap year when he was 19 and went on to groom more children posing as a respectable Christian English teacher and philanthropist.

He was arrested by National Crime Agency officials as he arrived at Gatwick Airport en route to spend Christmas with his family in 2014.

Officers seized Huckle's encrypted laptop and, although he refused to hand over passwords, they managed to uncover 20,000 indecent pictures and videos.

They found Huckle's paedophile manual called Paedophiles And Poverty: Child Lover Guide and a "Pedopoints ledger" in which he awarded himself marks for the abuse of 191 girls and boys.

In online posts, Huckle bragged: "Impoverished kids are definitely much easier to seduce than middle-class Western kids."

Offering advice to other like-minded people, he wrote: "If you really want to fully embrace child love, poverty is the way to go."

Richard Huckle targeted impoverished communities. Photo / Supplied

He said middle-class children were protected "no-go areas" while the less privileged may be "ugly, ill-mannered and unhealthy", the court heard.

Commenting on one of his victims, he boasted: "I'd hit the jackpot, a 3yo girl as loyal to me as my dog and nobody seemed to care."

His parents were so horrified when he confessed his crimes that they begged police to take him away and made statements to support his prosecution, the court heard.

"Fallen in love"

In a message to the dark website's 7000 users, he described how he had "fallen in love" with South Asia and its "adorable kids".

He wrote: "I have gotten particularly close with one family whom I have known about six years.

"I have sexual contact with four of the girls in that family and, though the family obviously does not approve it, they try to work around it as they know I can be a potentially valuable asset to them in future."

On planning to marry one of the girls when she turns 18, he wrote: "I feel my situation could strongly benefit me in that my partner is still quite young and I have known her since she was seven and I can influence her young mind to mould her into the perfect wife.

"My ambition once married would be for our family to be like foster carers for children, temporary or long term."