Richard Huckle: Prisoner jailed over 'poetic justice' murder

Richard Huckle was killed by fellow prisoner Paul Fitzgerald at Full Sutton prison in East Yorkshire

A psychopathic prisoner who murdered paedophile Richard Huckle in an act of "poetic justice" has been sentenced to a minimum of 34 years in jail.

Paul Fitzgerald, 30, assaulted and strangled Huckle in a 78-minute attack in his cell at HMP Full Sutton East Yorkshire in October 2019.

Fitzgerald said afterwards he wanted to cook and eat parts of Huckle's body.

Sentencing him at Hull Crown Court, Mr Justice Lavender said he had been acting out his fantasies.

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

"On this occasion you derived pleasure from acting out your fantasies."

The court heard Fitzgerald went into Huckle's cell and tied him up.

He then raped him and assaulted him with various weapons before strangling him with an electrical cord.

Mr Justice Lavender said: "You intended to rape and kill Mr Huckle and, if possible, cook parts of him and eat them.

"You did this for your own pleasure and also to inflict what you called poetic justice on a convicted paedophile."

The court heard that Fitzgerald, who suffers from psychopathy, anti-social personality disorder and gender identity disorder, has previous convictions for violent and sexual offences, starting from the age of 13 and including the false imprisonment of a female prison officer.

Fitzgerald, who appeared at the hearing by video link, was given a life sentence and must serve at least 34 years in jail.

Huckle, 33, from Ashford, Kent, was given 22 life sentences in 2016 after admitting 71 charges of sex abuse against up to 200 Malaysian children aged between six months and 12 years.