The mum of a pint-sized bodybuilder dubbed Little Hercules revealed that "sick people" would request topless images of her son.

Other fans camped outside his house, hoping to chat to the chiselled child.

Richard Sandrak, now 30, shot to international fame in 2005 as he boasted the physique of a professional athlete.

READ MORE: 'World's strongest boy' now unrecognisable after eight years of intense training

He was crowned the World's Strongest Boy aged just eight, maintaining his muscles with an intense gym routine. He would go on to lift three times his own body weight and become a master of karate.

Richard was born in Ukraine but grew up in Pennsylvania, US, where he was the subject of much fanfare and consequently a documentary.

Speaking to the documentary team, Richard's mum Lena Sandrak revealed that there was a dark side to her son's fame.

She said: "As Richard has a lot of fans we have to upload [to] his website, do more pictures, new videos and news whenever he appears or about his new movie, to make his fans excited.

"I've got a lot of them, I've got so many emails where they ask: 'Where are new pictures?'

"It was, in the first place, concerning with people asking for Richard's pictures. There is some sick people, sometimes they ask [dodgy things], but in the way they ask you learn to know it's wrong."

However, the vast majority of Richard's fans had good intentions and used his life as inspiration to make changes in their own.

One couple, Nancy and Steve Josephson, travelled over 2,000 miles to camp outside Richard's house, hoping to meet him and doing so.

Nancy said: "When we came to meet Richard, it was really interesting to see the change that occurred with Steve. I've been with Steve for many many years, and Steve can be painfully shy at times.

"When he was around Richard he became much more gregarious and outgoing."

Steve explained: "I was kind of in a rut, I didn't do a whole lot at work and I've always been very shy.

"But since I've found out about Richard, it's brought me out of my shell, it's made me a lot more outgoing and I've lost about 25lbs."

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The pair said they were going to continue training and hoped to send pictures to Richard, showing him the changes his example had led them to make.

Nancy said: "We were both influenced by Richard's willingness to stick with training and the way he eats, and we're both now feeling we can go back and lose weight and get in shape.

"If he can do this, I can do this. We're going to go home, we're going to make changes and for no other reason but to be able to send Richard a photo and say: 'Hey, look. We did this and you helped us do this.'"

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