A French pedophile who faced death by firing squad kills himself while awaiting sentence. He pleaded guilty to molesting over 300 children and beating those who refused to have sex with him.

Prison guards found Francois Camille Abello, 65, unresponsive inside his cell at a detention center in Jakarta, Indonesia.

They then rushed him to hospital. And after three days of treatment, he passed away.

According to doctors, the French retiree had a neck fracture that blocked oxygen supply.

Police said they had arrested Camille at a hotel in Jakarta, where they found him with two underaged girls in his room.

Jakarta police chief Nana Sudjana told reporters:

"We arrested him while he was in the hotel with two minors: One [was] already naked and the other half-naked. We took him to the [Jakarta] police headquarters."

In the raid, police also found Camille's laptop, which contained hundreds of pornographic videos. The clips showed him molesting young children.

While investigating, police also tracked down at least 17 of Camille's victims. On verifying their ages, officers found they were between 10 and 17.

Based on the video evidence, investigators suspected that he had been abusing children for years. Had entered Indonesia on a tourist visa.

Sudjana said:

"It would be impossible to record hundreds of videos in one day. I believe it took him years to make them. Also, he has been living in Indonesia since 2015."

Camille recorded most of the encounters he had with these children on a hidden camera. Detectives also said he likely abused over 300 victims.

The pensioner would approach children in the streets and lure them. He would then tell them that he needed models for a photo shoot.

If they agreed, he would then take them to hotels, prepare them for nude photo shoots and then rape them.

Sudjana said:

"He would approach children and lure them by offering them work as models."

"The ones who agreed to have sex with him would get paid between 250,000 and one million rupiah ($17-$70)."

However, if the young girls refused to have sex with him, he'd beat them up.

If convicted, he would have faced life imprisonment, chemical castration, or death under Indonesia's child protection laws.

At a press conference, before Camille's suicide attempt, Sudjana said:

"He [may] face the death penalty, with a minimum of 10 years or a maximum of 20 years of imprisonment."

The French embassy in Jakarta declined to comment on the case, AFP reported.

As many as 70,000 children are victims of sexual exploitation in Indonesia every year, according to the anti-trafficking network ECPAT International.