Probe continues after one of Britain's worst ever paedophiles is found stabbed to death

Richard Huckle, aged 33, was found dead at HMP Full Sutton, near York, on Sunday.

CRIME: Murder of Sheffield prostitute still baffling detectives 18 years on

It is reported that he was stabbed to death with a makeshift blade and was found in his cell.

LATEST: Travellers leave sports park in Sheffield

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

He is thought to have had as many as 200 victims, and the scale of his offending was described as ‘unprecedented’.

The freelance photographer, from Ashford in Kent, awarded himself ‘Pedopoints’ for different acts of abuse against 191 youngsters, and sold images of his depravity online.

In online posts, Huckle bragged that it was easier to target impoverished children in Malaysia than those from wealthy Western backgrounds.

Commenting on one of his victims, he boasted: "I'd hit the jackpot, a three-year-old girl as loyal to me as my dog and nobody seemed to care."

At the time of his arrest, he was writing a guide to teach fellow paedophiles how to abuse children and avoid detection.

He first went to Malaysia in 2005 on a gap year teaching placement.

He returned regularly and used teaching and religion to befriend the local Christian community before raping and abusing youngsters in impoverished communities.

Huckle focused his offending on vulnerable children in a poverty stricken community in Kuala Lumpur, even boasting of his exploits to other paedophiles online.

Huckle was arrested when he was stopped at Gatwick Airport when he returned to the UK for Christmas in 2014, after Australian authorities tipped off the UK's National Crime Agency.

Officers seized his encrypted laptop and managed to uncover more than 20,000 indecent pictures and videos although there were other files they were unable to crack.

A spokeswoman for Humberside Police said: "An investigation has been launched following an incident at HMP Full Sutton on Sunday October 13.

"We were called shortly after 12.30pm reporting that a man had died at the prison.

"Humberside Police are working closely with the Prison Service to investigate the death of an inmate and at this time we are treating the death as suspicious."

A Prison Service spokesman confirmed that Richard Huckle had died but would not comment further while the police investigation was ongoing.