Missed opportunities to stop prison killing of ‘Britain’s worst pedophile’ Richard Huckle

An inquiry into killing “Britain’s worst pedophile” at a Yorkshire prison revealed there was a “missed opportunity” to identify he had been attacked.

CCTV footage taken from that day shows only one member of staff spent time in Mr Huckle’s corridor during the time he was attacked. Therefore, this was a missed opportunity to prevent his murder.

Richard Huckle was killed by a fellow inmate at o East Yorkshire prison. Huckle was convicted of numerous horrific sex offenses against children – as young as six months old – abroad, where he worked as a Christian teacher.

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Despite being given 22 life sentences for his horrific crimes, Huckle did not live to serve a fraction of it after he was killed in a “protracted attack designed to humiliate and humiliate him degrade’ by prisoner Paul Fitzgerald at HMP Full Sutton on 13 October 2019. .

Before his death, there were protests that his sentence was too lenient and it was feared that he could be released in his lifetime. It is estimated that Huckle, also known as the “gap year pedophile”, abused 200 children during his travels abroad. He went to Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone, Kent, where he was described by friends as “a bit of a loner” and “nothing out of the ordinary”.

After leaving school, Huckle became a TEFL (Teacher of English as a Second Language) teacher and, like many, decided to combine this with his passion for travel. When he turned 19, he went all over the world in his poor year.

During this time, the apparently devout Christian would prey on vulnerable and poor children. The serial sex offender has been preying on girls, boys, toddlers and even a six-month-old baby for over nine years.

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He posed as a travel photographer and then took explicit photos of his abuse, which he sold to other pedophiles. He even bragged about other pedophiles and wrote a guide to sex abuse, which he called “Pedophiles and Poverty: A Child Lover’s Guide.”

In one part of the 60-page manual, he said: “I would have hit the jackpot, a three-year-old girl as loyal to me as my dog ​​and no one seemed to care.” He boasted online: “Poor kids are definitely much, much easier to seduce than middle-class western kids.”

During a trip to Cambodia in 2006, Huckle systematically raped two sisters, aged four and six. In 2011 he moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia after spending time in Vietnam and Cambodia, enrolling as a student at the Metropolitan University.

During this period he gained access to orphanages and schools posing as a freelance photographer. Once trust is established between Huckle and the various orphanages and schools, he will attach himself to the most vulnerable children, offering days at theme parks, photography lessons and assistance with their English lessons.

Huckle noted the extent of the abuse each victim suffered, and from those medical notes, police believe up to 200 children may have been targeted.

In February 2015, Huckle was remanded in custody. He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison for many serious sex crimes. In July 2016, he was transferred to HMP Full Sutton. During his time in prison, he was at times the victim of violence and bullying, and some prison staff told us that the high-profile nature of his offending may have made him more of a ‘target’ for bullying.

In 2018 Paul Fitzegerald, who had been in prison elsewhere since 2015, was transferred to HMP Full Sutton. Fitzgerald was diagnosed with a personality disorder with psychopathic traits. During his time in custody, Fitzgerald said he experienced violent fantasies and described thoughts of rape and torture. As a result, he was frequently assessed and reviewed by prison mental health teams.

On 9 July 2019, Fitzgerald moved to D Wing, where he lived in the same wing as Huckle. The wing was a facility for “vulnerable” inmates, including those who had been convicted of sex offenses or requested to live separately from the general population for other reasons. Prison staff told investigators Huckle’s high-profile offense may have made him more of a “target” for other prisoners.

The report states that on October 3, 2019, Fitzgerald told an officer that he had constant thoughts of murder, rape, cannibalism and torture. He said he committed a very violent act on a prisoner at Woodhill who did not report it at the time.

That same day, staff found a note on another wing addressed to Fitzgerald. He indicated that he would be paid to attack a specific prisoner (not Huckle). Staff submitted security information reports on both incidents.

Later on October 7, Fitzgerald met with his prison offender manager in the presence of an officer. During the meeting, Fitzgerald said he liked to hit women and made “veiled threats” that he planned to commit an act of violence. The officer submitted a security intelligence report.

At 10.30am on October 13, Fitzgerald went to Huckle’s cell and carried out a sustained and violent attack. At around 11.45, an inmate, who had disturbed the incident, informed the prison staff in the wing office. They went to the cell, removed Fitzgerald and began emergency first aid. At 12.30pm paramedics confirmed Mr Huckle was dead.

It was later revealed that Fitzgerald tortured Huckle in a 78-minute attack. After tying up Huckle, Fitzgerald raped him, strangled him with such force his hands needed treatment and smashed his face on the floor, punched him, broke his jaw, stabbed him in the throat and inserted the pen so far up the nostril that it penetrated the bone and entered the brain.

A post-mortem examination determined that Huckle was the victim of a sustained attack involving improvised weapons used to inflict multiple injuries. The pathologist concluded that she died of strangulation.

An investigation into how another inmate managed to kill Huckle while in prison, which was carried out by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, was launched today (Wednesday 15 May). The coroner, Sue McAllister, believes there were “missed opportunities” to identify that Mr Fitzgerald was at “an increased risk” of committing an “act of serious violence” in the run-up to Mr Huckle’s death.

Ms McAllister said: “Each piece of information was considered in isolation and there was no evidence that anyone considered whether, cumulatively, it might indicate a greater risk. At the same time, a wing manager did not interview Fitzgerald in light of the information, as should have happened. There was also no referral to the mental health team, despite one of the reports explicitly referring to Fitzgerald’s “poor mental health”.

In addition, the report’s findings also indicated that CCTV footage taken on the day showed that only one member of staff spent time in Mr Huckle’s corridor during the time Mr Fitzgerald was in his cell. Therefore, this was a missed opportunity to identify the attack.

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman made a number of recommendations following the inquiry’s findings. These include that the prison governor should ensure that reports of security intelligence indicating violence are properly investigated, that prisoners who the information highlights may be considering committing an act of violence be interviewed by wing managers.

The report also suggested that officers should conduct frequent patrols and be alert for signs of violence.

Fitzgerald was sentenced to life in prison for Huckle’s murder, with a minimum sentence of 34 years. He claimed he was doing “poetic justice” for Huckle’s 200 victims as he tortured them for an hour and 19 minutes.