Paedophile former teacher and scout leader dies in Cambridgeshire prison

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More info × Group 28 Thank you for subscribing! We have more newsletters Show Me No thanks, close See our Privacy Notice A former teacher and scout leader jailed for historic child sex offences has died in prison. Russell Howard-Tricker, 83, was an inmate at HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire when he died in March. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman said he died on March 18 and an investigation into his death was underway.

Howard-Tricker was almost halfway through a 14-year sentence for sexually abusing two teenage boys in the 1960s and 1970s. He was based in Colchester at the time of the offending but lived in Prague at the time of his arrest. He was arrested in December 2018 at Birmingham Airport and later charged.

He admitted two counts of indecent assault in 2019, denying one charge of buggery and one of indecent assault against the first victim. A jury convicted the former teacher of both crimes later that year. A Prison Service spokesperson told EssexLive : “Russell Howard-Tricker died on 18 March 2025 at HMP Littlehey.

As with all deaths in custody, the Prison and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.” The first of Howard-Tricker's survivors said they had been left feeling "shame, self-doubt, isolation and depression" after the offending. They added: "I am grateful that a dangerous paedophile has been prevented from harming others in the way he harmed me.

" His second survivor said Howard-Tricker's crimes had driven him towards alcohol and depression. "I would drink up to 10 pints a day at the worst points and my dependency went on for decades," he said. "It led to me getting a drink drive conviction, to losing my job after that, to eventually my first wife leaving me.

I felt degraded by what Tricker did to me and felt I could never tell anyone so I just locked all my feelings away." Investigating officer DC Rachel Evemy said of Howard-Tricker at the time of his sentencing: "He was someone they trusted and who had a duty of care for them, and he abused that trust in the most horrendous way." Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks.

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