Richard Huckle has been sentenced to life in prison after admitting 71 charges of sex abuse against children in Malaysia.

The 30-year-old Briton admitted to a series of offences against children aged between six months and 12-years-old from 2006 to 2014.

At the Old Bailey, Huckle was given 22 life sentences and will serve a minimum of 23 years in prison.

Huckle posed as a voluntary aid worker to gain access to poor, mostly Christian, children in the Malaysian capital Kuala Kumpur.

Huckle was attempting to create a business out of his abuse of children, and had launched a crowd-funding campaign for the release of a series of child abuse images when he was caught by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Over the eight years he was active, Huckle shared more than 20,000 indecent pictures and videos of his assaults on children on the dark web.

Sentencing Huckle, Judge Peter Rook QC said:

“It is very rare indeed that a judge has to sentence sexual offending by one person on such a scale as this.”