UK child abuser who preyed on Malaysians killed in prison A British man serving 22 life sentences for abusing up to 200 Malaysian children has been killed in prison

LONDON -- A British man serving 22 life sentences for abusing scores of Malaysian children has been killed in prison.

Richard Huckle was found dead Sunday at Full Sutton prison in the northern county of Yorkshire.

Police on Tuesday declined to comment on the status of their investigation into his death. The Prison Service confirmed Huckle had died.

He reportedly was stabbed to death using a makeshift knife.

Huckle, a freelance photographer, was convicted in 2016 for abusing children aged from 6 months to 12 years. He sold images of the abuse on the dark web. He groomed children while posing as a Christian English teacher and philanthropist.

In online posts, Huckle bragged that it was easier to target impoverished children in Malaysia than youngsters from wealthy Western backgrounds.

Huckle was ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years for 71 offenses against children from 2006 to 2014.

The National Crime Agency arrested Huckle in 2014 following a tip from Australian authorities and found 20,000 indecent images on his encrypted computer, 1,117 of which showed him raping and abusing children in his care.

Huckle also created a 60-page "how to" guide for other pedophiles seeking to evade getting caught and kept a scorecard tallying the number of children abused.

"If you wanted to profile the worst kind of child sex offender, the worst kind of predator, then Richard Huckle was it," said Jim Gamble, former Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.