According to the British news channel BBC, a British man is facing multiple life sentences for numerous sex crimes against Malaysian children which he boasted about on the “dark web”.
Richard Huckle, 30, from Ashford in Kent, admitted the offences against victims aged between six months and 12 years, from 2006 to 2014.
The 91 charges pressed against Richard Huckle was related to 23 children from mainly poor communities in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.
While I am thankful that he is now brought to book by English authority, I demand explanation from PDRM that whether any police reports were lodged against Richard Huckle while he was here in Malaysia in between 2006 to 2014 and if indeed police reports by the victims’ families were lodged against Richard Huckle, then the next question will be, what have the police done following the reports?
It is believed that Huckle had abused up to 200 children. It is therefore hard to believe that none of the parents or guardians of these children had noticed anything unusual and none of them had ever lodged police report against this pedophile. If police reports were lodged and proper actions had been taken, surely we can prevent many children from becoming victims.
It is therefore pertinent for the police to explain if they indeed have not received any reports against Huckle over the period of 9 years and therefore they are not at fault for not able to stop his heinous crime against our children who aged between six months and 12 years.
At the same time, I urge the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development to contact the English authorities immediately in order to obtain the identity of the victims. We must not only provide counseling to the victims, but also ascertain if the parents or the guardians have been negligent in taking care of the children.
Section 31(1) of the Child Act 2001 says that any person having the care of a child neglects or abandons or exposes the child in a manner causes or permits him to be abused, shall on conviction be liable for a fine not exceeding RM20,000 or to be imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or to both. The penalty has been further increased to RM50,000 and 20 years under Child Act (Amendment) Bill 2016, which was passed in Dewan Raykat on April 7, 2016. It is useless to increase the penalty if eventually none is being charged in court.