Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) has expressed its shock that Malaysian authorities seem to be unaware of paedophile Richard Huckle’s criminal activities in Malaysia, despite him being under surveillance by the UK and Australian authorities for a significant amount of time.

UK national Huckle caught the attention of the foreign police when they became aware of the paedophile site he had been using.

“Since the victims were largely Malaysians, was there no cooperation at all between international law enforcement agencies and the Malaysian police over such serious crimes that he was only arrested when he returned to the UK?” the NGO’s spokesperson Melissa Sasidaran asked in a statement today.

“The high number of Huckle’s victims and the extent of his crimes in Malaysia raised serious questions as to whether our authorities were really in the dark over these abuses.

“Were there no warning signs or complaints at all from the victims and family members, church, NGOs or hospitals?” she added.

The human rights lawyers organisation also demanded that the relevant authorities provide an explanation over their apparent lack of investigation, action or public warning over Huckle’s crimes.

“We again urge the authorities to re-focus their resources on tackling real crimes instead of being more concerned with policing social media users over frivolous comments, even going so far as to apprehend critics at sea.”

Huckle is currently undergoing sentencing hearing in the UK over charges of sexually abusing children, many of them believed to be from poor communities in Kuala Lumpur.