Prisoner guilty of murdering UK’ s ‘ worst paedophile’ in cell attack
A PRISONER has been found guilty of murdering “Britain’s worst paedophile” in an attack he said was “poetic justice” for the children Richard Huckle abused.
Paul Fitzgerald, 30, said that he wanted Huckle to feel what his victims had felt after strangling him with an electrical cable sheath, and using a pen and a blunt object to kill him.
Jurors at Hull Crown Court took around an hour to convict Fitzgerald of murder after a fourday trial.
Opening the case last week, Alistair MacDonald QC said the attack in October 2019 was designed to “humiliate and degrade” Huckle, who Fitzgerald described as “Britain’s worst paedophile”.
The prosecutor said Huckle was a “predatory paedophile” who was “notorious in the press” and had been extradited and tried in the UK for a large number of child sexual assaults.
Mr MacDonald said Fitzgerald told doctors he had sexually assaulted Huckle, even though he did not find him sexually attractive.
The barrister said: “He felt that it was poetic justice and he wanted Richard Huckle to feel what all those children had felt.
“He said that Richard Huckle was a man who raped and abused children for fun and that he suspected that Richard Huckle had done more than merely rape his victims.”
The court heard that Fitzgerald took objects to Huckle’s cell at HMP Full Sutton – including weapons fashioned by the defendant, such as a melted toothbrush with a screw inserted, and items used as a ligature and bindings for the victim’s hands and feet.
Fitzgerald denied murder and said his conditions – including mixed personality disorder, psychopathy and gender identity disorder – had impaired his selfcontrol. The court heard the defendant said he had “constant ruminations” in his mind about torture, rape and murder. He will be sentenced today.