In reports by British news portals Sky News and the Daily Mail, Mariza Abdulkadir, interim executive director of the Malaysian charity Protect and Save the Children Association, questioned why there was no collaboration between the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and Malaysian police.
“I’ve learned that the NCA cannot operate in another country, move in and arrest someone, but I cannot understand why our police here were not tipped off to keep a watch on him,” Mariza told the Daily Mail.
“Perhaps there was a fear he would realise he was being investigated and would go underground – that’s the only logical explanation I can come up with, but I still don’t think it’s strong enough to let him continue to abuse children until he returned to the UK in December 2014.”
She also criticised the NCA for failing to tell community leaders in Malaysia about the extent of his crimes until 16 months after his arrest.
Mariza told UK news portal Sky News: “We were actually approached by the British police back in December 2014.”
“They didn’t give us much information so we went in there with nothing – so we approached the communities as a non-governmental organisation, doing prevention work on child sexual abuse and working with communities and giving them safety workshops and talks to parents and the community leaders. Absolutely no information was given to them at all.”
The parents and carers of the victims are still in denial, says Mariza.
“We are now working at getting the message through to them that, ‘It’s not your fault, not the children’s fault.'”
“Sexual abuse of their children was not something they wanted to even contemplate.”
Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Azizah Mohd Dun said she was told nothing about Huckle’s crimes against children here.
“As of this moment, we don’t know anything about this case,” she told Sky News.
“The prosecution is happening in England and the victims are unknown, and so we would, of course, like to help. That is our duty. The victims are here in Malaysia, we would like to help. Counselling, for a start, but at the moment we don’t know who they are.
“It’s horrible, really horrible. It’s not something to be tolerated, and we will do anything to protect our children if we know about it.”