BBC Documentaries

The Gap Year Paedophile (2017x247)

Air date: Sep 25, 2017

Reporter Bronagh Munro investigates how a teenage gap year student became one of Britain’s worst ever paedophiles. In 2016, thirty year old Richard Huckle was imprisoned after being convicted at the Old Bailey of abusing twenty three children in Malaysia and Cambodia. Working as an English teacher and posing as a Christian, Huckle raped and sexually assaulted vulnerable and poor children of all ages, from babies to young teenagers. On the dark web, he shared tens of thousands of images of his crimes, boasted about them and even published a manual for paedophiles. This film investigates how Huckle escaped detection for nearly a decade and reveals that he could have been stopped earlier. Following Huckle’s trail to India, where his movements have not been investigated by the authorities, Munro uncovers previously undetected crimes. The film asks whether Huckle also abused children in Britain and reveals that the true count of his victims is likely to number into the hundreds.