by Barnaby Kellaway

A "psychopath" prison inmate who "derived pleasure" from acting out his "fantasy" was jailed for 34 years today for raping and then strangling Britain's worst paedophile to death.

Paul Fitzgerald, 30, tortured Richard Huckle from Ashford by tying him up, raping and assaulting him, a court heard.

At the time of his brutal death Huckle, 33, was serving 22 life sentences at HMP Full Sutton for the horrendous abuse of around 200 youngsters.

According to the evidence, Fitzgerald was fuelled by "poetic justice" and killed his victim because he wanted him to "feel what all those children felt".

Fitzgerald had planned to kill more people but got "carried away" by "how much fun" he was having with Huckle, a court heard. He had also fantasized about eating his victims.

Fitzgerald, who was also behind bars for a sexual offence at the time of the killing, was yesterday found guilty of murder following a four day trial at Hull Crown Court.

He appeared at the same court today (tues) wearing rosary beads around his neck.

He was handed life imprisonment with a minimum term of 34 years. He sniggered throughout the hearing and appeared to yawn as the sentence was read out.

The Honourable Mr Justice Lavender, sentencing, said: "You are a psychopath and derive pleasure from fantasising about raping, torturing, killing and even eating others.

"In this case you derived pleasure from acting out your fantasy.

"You intended to rape and kill Mr Huckle, you did this for your own pleasure and to inflict what you called poetic justice on a convicted paedophile. You have revelled in the attention you received as a result of the killing.

"You did not just kill Mr Huckle, you bound his arms and feet and gagged him, you raped him, you penetrated his anus with the handle of a kitchen spoon.

"You strangled him using so much force that your hands still require treatment.

"You have revelled in the attention you received as a result of the killing..."

"You stabbed him in the neck, punched him. This went on for an hour and a quarter. You said, 'I got carried away by how much fun I was having'."

The court previously heard Huckle was killed in his own cell at HMP Full Sutton near Pocklington, East Yorks., between 10.30am and 11am on October 13 last year.

Prosecutor Alistair Neil Macdonald QC said Fitzgerald strangled Huckle with a ligature, forced a pen up his nose into his brain and inserted a kitchen utensil in his anus.

The defendant went on to tell police he carried out the rape to give his victim "a taste" of what he had subjected so many children to, it was heard.

Mr Macdonald said the insertion of an object into Huckle's anus and brain was "a form of punishment" for the crimes he had committed.

He added the attack was "carefully planned and considered" by the defendant, who was jailed indefinitely in 2009 for a sex attack on a dog walker.

In an interview with a consultant called Dr Shenoy, Fitzgerald said his attack was "poetic justice" and that he wanted Huckle to "feel what all those children felt".

He said: "This is a man who rapes and abuses children for fun. He could have killed them as well. I’m inclined to think he did worse than just raping them.

"When he was laid down with his pants down and he knew what was coming, he did not enjoy it I am sure. I knew what it feels like, but he doesn’t.Rape was more about him getting a taste of that."

Huckle was pronounced dead at 12.30pm on October 13, 2019, and a post-mortem concluded he died from strangulation using a ligature in the form of an electrical cable sheath.

He had bruises and abrasions over his body and had been penetrated anally with a four inch-long object.

Mr Macdonald said one day after the killing, Fitzgerald told the Full Sutton mental health care manager Mr Brennan he had planned to murder two or three people but found he was having "too much fun" with Huckle.

According to the prosecutor, he also said he would have liked to cook bits of the body. Mr Macdonald said: "He's a highly dangerous person who poses a risk to anyone he meets."

Fitzgerald's defence barrister Michelle Heeley QC told the court: "Mr Fitzgerald didn't choose to be this way, he's a product of his upbringing and his environment."

The judge added mitigating factors included the defendant's psychopathy, mental health and antisocial personality disorder - a product of abuse suffered as a child, it was heard.

The court heard the defendant has numerous other criminal convictions for offences including ABH and false imprisonment.

After one such offence police discovered a number of disturbing drawings and notes at his property, including one which said 'I love raping women'.

Huckle was given 22 life sentences at the Old Bailey in 2016 for an unprecedented number of offences against children aged between six months and 12 years.

The freelance photographer targeted vulnerable youngsters while volunteering in orphanages in Malaysia.

To read more of our in depth coverage of all of the major trials coming out of crown and magistrates' courts across the county, click here.

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