British Paedophile Convicted for Several Cases in Southeast Asia
An NGO is working with children subjected to child sexual abuse, to provide them therapy by making them talk freely.
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In the shadows of Kuala Lumpur’s gleaming high-rises, a non-governmental organisation has started holding workshops on sexual abuse for children of a poor Indian community, once a haunt of convicted British pedophile Richard Huckle.
It took weeks to convince the 200 families in the community, which cannot under law be named in order to protect the identity of Huckle’s victims, to allow their children, some as young as four, to gain some sex education.
The NGO wanted to start the safety workshops much earlier, but they were able to get the consent only recently. She said residents told her : “Why are you here? The victims are not among us, it’s other people.”
Asked what he learned in the sex education classes, one five-year-old boy in the neighbourhood said: “No one can touch our private parts” and about “safety rules and feelings”.
Through the workshops, the NGO is hoping to get the children to talk about any abuse they might have suffered so they can get counselling and therapy, since the British police cannot disclose the identities of the victims.
Huckle was given 22 life sentences in a London court on Monday after admitting to 71 charges of sex abuse against children in Malaysia and Cambodia from the ages of six months to 12.
The 30-year-old Briton posed as a freelance photographer, English teacher and Western philanthropist over the past decade to gain access mostly to impoverished communities.
Many in Malaysia are asking how he could have gotten away with such abominable activities for so long in these close-knit communities.
‘Hush Mentality’
Huckle himself may have provided the answer in a posting he reportedly made on the “dark web”, an encrypted network on the Internet, after a trip to India.
Freelance journalist Mahi Ramakrishnan, who met with one of the victims, said in some instances where children complained to their families about Huckle, they paid no heed.
Mahi said this was clear in the case of one girl and her two cousins, who Huckle allegedly abused for years in their own home, even after the children told their grandmother he had taken photos and videos of them urinating.
Those who knew Huckle said he was friendly and polite, always roaming with his camera. He participated in the neighbourhood Hindu temple’s religious festivals and sports competitions, and even learnt the Tamil language.
In another neighbourhood of Kuala Lumpur that Huckle frequented, Pastor Paul Pakianathan said Huckle occasionally brought a few Indian children along with him to his church. But when the pastor asked to meet the parents of the children, Huckle’s visits stopped.
Weak Laws
Malaysians have expressed outrage on social media over the apathy shown by law enforcement and government officials. British police said this week they told their counterparts in Kuala Lumpur about Huckle’s suspected behaviour more than 18 months ago.
But under current Malaysian law, police do not have a lot of leeway to investigate child abuse.
Not all forms of child abuse are necessarily a crime under Malaysian law: people can be charged only for rape – defined as penile penetration – and incest.
She said Malaysia has convicted only three or four people for child sexual abuse over the last 17 years. Malaysia has no official statistics on child abuse.
(This article was published in an arrangement with Reuters.)
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