A Christian schoolteacher from England, Richard Huckle, can no longer prey on vulnerable, impoverished children in Malaysia and Cambodia. The 30-year-old serial pedophile, who was arrested in 2014 after eight years of frequent sexual assaults on children as young as six months, received 22 life sentences from a British court yesterday.

“Impoverished kids are definitely much easier to seduce than middle-class Western kids,” Huckle wrote in an online post cited by the BBC. “I still plan on publishing a guide on this subject sometime.” “I’d hit the jackpot,” he commented on another occasion, “a 3yo girl as loyal to me as my dog and nobody seemed to care.”

Police believe the total number of children victimized by Huckle is more than 200.

Huckle compounded his crimes by having written a 60-page guide titled “Pedophiles & Poverty: Child Lover Guide,” a how-to manual he intended to publish online.

In both Cambodia and Malaysia,

Huckle cultivated an altruistic, Christian image founded upon an alleged passion for teaching English and spreading Bible stories. He posted thousands of images on Facebook showing him happily interacting with children, and he was included in a promotional video created by the British Council in Malaysia, according to BuzzFeed. … His victims, the Independent noted, came mostly from poor Christian families. … Investigators later discovered that Huckle had amassed a library of more than 20,000 obscene images and videos documenting his assaults, which he attempted to sell on the “Dark Web” in return for Bitcoins, according to BuzzFeed. The abuse guide was found on Huckle’s laptop — in an encrypted location — and was ready for publication through a “Dark Web” hyperlink, the Independent reported.

Martin Saunders at Christian Today, to his credit, declines to play No True Scotsman:

It’s allegedly Huckle’s Christianity that has created his opportunities for access to and abuse of children. He groomed children while performing voluntary work in Kuala Lumpur with a church-based charity. When in the UK, he was an active member and Sunday school teacher at a church in Kent. The news is both deeply upsetting and extremely challenging for Christians. And while our instinctive reaction might be to try to cut Huckle loose as a man who was cynically using the Church as a cover story, we simply can’t be sure that’s true. It’s very possible that Huckle was both a vile offender and a true believer at the same time. There’s every chance that he really is one of us; utterly disgraced, but still part of the family. We can’t simply wash our hands of him, his beliefs, or his actions.

But despite Huckle’s depraved crime record, Saunders adds,

[I]t doesn’t mean that God loves him any less. The scandalous truth of Grace is that he isn’t beyond redemption, even considering the gravity of what he’s done.

Saunders’ colleague Justin Humphreys cites a Christian song about divine forgiveness (caution, it might send you into a headdesk frenzy):

I am reminded here of the Fanny Crosby hymn that refers to the “vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.”

Good to know that Huckle may still be destined for heaven. Your heathen ass, not so much.

(Photo via the Mirror)



