Pedophile Richard Huckle, who was serving life in prison after admitting to sexually abusing children as young as six months old, was stabbed to death in jail, according to reports.
“It looks like Huckle was stabbed to death with makeshift blade. It’s not clear yet if the weapon has been found,” a source told the paper.
A spokeswoman for the Humberside Police said a probe has been launched.
“We were called shortly after 12:30 p.m. reporting that a man had died at the prison,” she said. “Humberside Police are working closely with the Prison Service to investigate the death of an inmate and at this time we are treating the death as suspicious.”
Huckle was arrested in 2014 at Gatwick Airport in England after Australian authorities passed on information about him.
Huckle was accused of abusing up to 200 children during visits to Malaysia, where he volunteered. The freelance photographer and former English teacher was sentenced to 22 life sentences after pleading guilty to 71 charges of sex abuse.
Huckle admitted abusing children as young as six months and as old as 12 years old between 2006 and 2014.
At the sentencing, Judge Peter Rook said: “Your offending behavior became entrenched in your everyday life. Your life revolved around your sexual activities with young children. Your distorted beliefs in respect of children are deep-seated. Your self-delusion knows no bounds.”
Despite the seemingly harsh sentencing, Huckle could have been out of jail as early as his mid-50s because each sentence had a minimum of only 25 years, The Sun reported.
Huckle was known to brag about the sex abuse he perpetrated online, at one point telling others about a three-year-old girl he raped.
Huckle also shared pictures and videos of himself abusing children, receiving bitcoin in payment for the materials. And authorities said he shared tips with others on the dark web regarding how to make children trust them.
