Written by Illyana Helmy
Paedophilia has become a major social issue in today’s modern society. It is a health problem, and the word Paedophile is commonly applied indiscriminately to anyone who sexually abuses a child. A paedophile is the current high profile nature, and it is something that is related to aetiology, antecedents, personality, and behaviour. Child sexual abusers are most likely being perceived as negative behaviour, and regardless of any gender, the paedophiles have an impact towards the victims (McCartan, 2008).
Richard Huckle is 30 years old man who is a photographer from Ashford in Kent admitted an unprecedented 71 offences, including rapes against young children aged between six months to 12 years old. He is an English teacher and philanthropist in poor Christian communities in Kuala Lumpur. He committed the crime between 2006 to 2014 during his existence in Malaysia. Huckle is known one of Britain’s worst predator paedophiles who targeted, groomed and abused Children’s in Malaysia. Based on the records his victims are over than 200 Malaysian babies and children. The worst part is that he shared the images of his horrific crimes on the dark web. Because of this, he has been handed 22 life sentences. Some people claim that the number of his victims could be higher as the investigators found a very long ledger and scorecard on his computer. Huckle created a ledger as he awarded himself marks for different kinds of abuse that he has done towards 191 girls and boys.
At the beginning of the case, The Star highlighted that the Malaysian police encountered a slight problem to obtain further information and cooperation from the British authorities. Initially, Malaysian police were informed about Huckle in 2014, but they didn’t receive further details. British authorities only mention that Huckle was suspected to have involved in paedophile activities in Malaysia. However, the information did not supply as requested by Malaysian police and they were trying to get more information (The Star Online, 2016). This situation brings a lot of questions. The main obstacle is about the law practising in Malaysia different than European Countries because Malaysia carries out capital punishment which could lead to death. In another article from abc.net.au which is an Australian-based news portal reveal the information’s that is contra from The Star. Based on CA deputy director, Andrew Brennan during his interview he told reporters after sentencing on Monday which is November 2014 the day that the British had informed Malaysian authorities of Huckle case, they have shared all the required information and all of the intelligence. Also, The British High Commission also told the Reuters news agency that they had constantly been engaged with the Malaysian authorities since 2014. Unfortunately, the Malaysian police did not respond immediately to request for comments on the British High Commission statement. Based on the conflicting arguments statement above, it is, of course, shows that both parties were put the blame on each other for not giving very fast respond to the Huckle’s case.
To sum up, The Star online and abc.net published news in a different point of view. Both of it, try to explain and justify to the public about the situation. After all, it is not the government faults for late in taking actions because the public has been questioning where is the police, since Huckle doing his activities for almost a decade.
Reference
abc.net.au. (2016). Print Email Facebook Twitter More Richard Huckle:Malaysian
authorities under pressure to explain handling of paedophile case.
AlJazeera. (2015). Malaysia revives detention without trial.
McCartan, K. F. (2008). Current understandings of paedophilia and the resulting
crisis in modern society .
New Straits Times. (2015). POTA a necessary tool in terror war.
The Star Online. (2016). IGP: Police plan to record statement from British pedophilia.