Bangalore: A pedophile from Britain sent a series of emails to gain the trust of a priest who runs a orphanages in India to get access to children living there.

In the emails, Richard Huckle posed as a volunteer who wanted to visit the children’s home and bring his camera to take photos and videos of them.

Huckle, 30, a grammar schoolboy, raised by middle class parents in Ashford in Kent, faces life in jail for a sickening catalogue of sex crimes against children as young as two.

Posing as a freelance photographer and English teacher, he used his charisma to talk his way into communities of vulnerable children, primarily in Malaysia and Cambodia.

Huckle gained access to care homes, orphanages and other impoverished communities that were unprepared to cope with the infiltration of a monster.

Now, Indian pastor George Fernandes, 37, has revealed how the pedophile targeted his New Hope for Children Orphanage in Bangalore.

Huckle sent emails to pastor Fernandes after finding the orphanage on Facebook.

His first email on June 30, 2013, reads: ‘Greetings Pastor George. My name is Richard Huckle. I’m originally from UK but am studying an IT Degree in Malaysia.’

He went on to detail plans to travel through India, and expressed his enthusiasm for visiting the orphanage.

He continued: ‘I’m very much interested in visiting your orphanages in Bangalore and Ambur.

‘It would be a great experience for me to visit your orphanages, meet and help the children, and would be more than happy to use my photography and video editing skills to help make some promotional material for your ministry.’

He added: ‘God bless your ministry and I look forward to hearing back from you.’

Pastor Fernandes told how he accepted Huckle’s offer, not suspecting the horrific crimes he was capable of.

He told Pastor Fernandes that he would be ‘very interested’ in visiting the orphanage where he wanted to take pictures of the children with his camera

He was able to build up a rapport with the heads of the orphanages and care homes he visited, by posing as a student or a teacher to gain a position of trust within the facilities

Huckle asked the pastor if he knew of anywhere he could stay, ‘either with a local family or at a cheap hotel’ and was offered a room at the priest’s house.

He was not left alone with the children during his two-day stay and he is not believed to have abused any children there.

Pastor Fernandes told MailOnline: ‘I am shocked to read about what he has done. In hindsight, I can see he just wanted to gain access our kids.

‘He seemed nice on email and we were excited to host him as we thought he is keen to serve the orphan children,’ said the priest.

‘One thing I noticed that was unusual about his personality was his silence. He would not speak much or tell anything about his past.

‘He was very quiet and very different than other western volunteers we had in the past and he would hardly open up even during dinner at my home.

‘He had very good knowledge of photography and taught us many new thing and we learnt a lot from him but he seemed disoriented and won’t look straight into our eyes ever during his short stay.’

During Huckle’s visit, the orphanage posted a special ‘thank you’ photo on Facebook – with the caption: ‘Richard is a photographer who arrived in Bangalore today to work with Pastor George as a volunteer. He is taking new photos and video of the children at NHC Home.’

(This story appeared in dailymail.co.uk on June 3, 2016)