Was the villain Harry Powell asexual, Pedophile or Gay?

I've always wondered about this myself. I think key to this question is the importance of Powell's switchblade knife, which he pulls out in front of the children at the dinner table and which has been analyzed by some to be representing something much darker than his implicitly threatening to kill two children (itself pretty dark). Symbolically, the knife is a phallic symbol representing his sexual repression and it comes out both when women attempt to flirt with him (Ruby's case) and/or when he finds himself aroused by women he perceives to be sexually promiscuous (the stripper at the start of the film). Hence, his using the knife on his female victims has been widely considered a symbolic form of rape (and - some have theorized - implied necrophilia). The fact that Laughton himself was sexually abused at the age of eleven (allegedly by at least one resident priest at the all-boys' school he was attending), makes me wonder how much intentionality there was in making Powell's advancements towards the children be as creepy as possible - and also factoring into this what was Davis Grubb's intent when he wrote the book. The character of Harry Powell was largely based on the serial killer Harry Powers - who in real life did successfully murder the children in his care along with their mother and several other women from lonely hearts ads, but who was never stated to have a sexual preference for anything other than adult women. Still, when Harry finally has the children cornered in Miss Cooper's house, he never at any point states that he just wants the money the kids are hiding, or even more generally just "wants the doll." Rather he makes it very clear "I want them kids." His reply to Miss Cooper asking what he wants them for - "That's none of your business madam" - comes off as a VERY loaded statement.