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Posted by: Inspector

Interpol/Reuters
The online pictures of the alleged pedophile had been digitally altered to disguise the man's face with a swirly pattern, left, but computer specialists worked with Interpol to produce an identifiable image, right.



Interpol is looking for this man in connection with hundreds of videos in which he molests young boys. The videos are being circulated on the international market and authorities worldwide have been trying to identify this man so he may be apprehended and prosecuted. The suspect has made an effort to disguise his appearance by using the swirly face but a German computer expert has "undone" the swirl to expose this face. Now let's dig into those memory banks and see if we can come up with a name to place with this face.

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Posted by: kwflatbed

Hunt in Thailand for pedophile suspect

By AMBIKA AHUJA
Associated Press Writer


AP Photo/HO

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Police said they were closer Wednesday to finding a Canadian schoolteacher suspected of sexually abusing Cambodian and Vietnamese boys, expressing confidence he was still in Thailand and would not be able to slip out.
Border guards in Thailand and neighboring countries were on alert in case Christopher Paul Neil tried to leave Thailand. Cameras at the immigration counter captured him arriving at Bangkok's international airport Thursday from South Korea.
"We are quite certain he is still in Thailand and we think we are moving closer," police Col. Apichart Suribunya said. "Even if he uses a fake passport to try to get out of the country, his pictures are already published everywhere."
The hunt for Neil began three years ago when German police discovered about 200 online photographs of a man sexually abusing 12 young Vietnamese and Cambodian boys, apparently as young as 6. The man's face was digitally obscured, but a breakthrough in the case came when German police were able to reconstruct a recognizable image.
Neil, 32, was identified with the help of hundreds of tips from people responding to an unprecedented appeal by Interpol for public help. His photo was broadcast around the world Tuesday.
Thai authorities were collaborating with Interpol and police in several countries to gather sufficient evidence for an arrest warrant, said Apichart, who is coordinating the Thai investigation.
"We want to find this man as soon as possible to prevent him from abusing Thai children and other children," he said.
Neil taught at schools in at least three Asian countries - South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. Before teaching, he had worked as a chaplain in Canada, counseling teens.
Former colleagues in South Korea said he arrived in August to teach at the Gwangju school, a small international school in the city of Gwangju, about 186 miles southwest of Seoul. He failed to show up for work Thursday, and Interpol said he flew to Bangkok on a one-way, full-fare ticket.
"He was a very good teacher. Well-organized, well prepared. His kids really liked him," said Ray Fowler, a Canadian teacher at the school who said he lived next door to Neil.
He said Neil, who taught social studies and English in seventh and eighth grades, would join other teachers at his place to drink beer and listen to music on Friday nights.
It was a different story in Thailand, where officials said Neil taught at the Ramkhamhaeng Advent International School from August 2003 to January 2004.
"He didn't pass the probation," said Poramit Srikureja, an assistant chairman of the Christian school in Bangkok.
Poramit said the school gave Neil warnings about his teaching performance, in particular sloppy lesson plans and leaving students unsupervised in the classroom.
Both schools said there were no complaints of abuse from parents or students where he was there.
Parents, however, were anxious and angry.
"My heart is still pounding," said Moon Hyang-bun, who has two children at the school in South Korea. "I didn't personally meet him but our kids liked him. ... He suddenly disappeared and our kids were perplexed and felt bad."
Capt. Hope Carr, a public affairs officer for Canada's military, said Neil worked as a chaplain and counselor for youths aged 12 to 18 from 1998 to 2000 at a cadet training center in Nova Scotia.
He will be extradited to Canada once he is arrested, said Kim Scanlan of the Toronto police child exploitation unit.
Police in Cambodia, which shares a border with Thailand, were scouring the country for anyone who might have known Neil, said Maj. Gen. Keo Vannthan, director of Cambodia's Interpol bureau.
"If he comes to Cambodia, he will be immediately arrested," Keo Vannthan said.
He said that records found by Cambodian immigration police Wednesday showed Neil entered the country on Feb. 8, 2005, as a tourist and left two days later on a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok.
He said Cambodian police had not yet been able to establish if Neil had committed any sexual abuses against Cambodian children but that they were still investigating.
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Associated Press Writers Hyung-Jin Kim and Kelly Olsen in Seoul, South Korea; Sutin Wannabovorn in Bangkok, Thailand; and Robert Gillies in Toronto, Canada, contributed to this report.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

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Posted by: kwflatbed

Thais arrest Canadian child-sex suspect

By AMBIKA AHUJA, Associated Press Writer



BANGKOK, Thailand - A Canadian schoolteacher suspected of sexually abusing boys was arrested in rural Thailand and charged on Friday after an international manhunt that relied on digitally unscrambled photos and tips from the public.
Police found 32-year-old Christopher Paul Neil after tracing the phone call of a Thai acquaintance who then led them to the suspect, officials said at a news conference in Bangkok where Neil also was present.
"I think he knew we were coming," said police Col. Paisal Luesomboon, who was in the five-man team that made the arrest in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima. "He knew that there was an arrest warrant issued and that his face was posted everywhere."
Driven to Bangkok, about 130 miles away, Neil was in handcuffs and had a blue shirt draped over his head as officers led him into national police headquarters. He made no comments to a waiting horde of reporters.
He stayed silent when presented to journalists at the news conference. The shirt was removed from his head, but his eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses.
Several Thai boys had come forward to say that they had been abused by Neil, and police — who had been tracing Neil's network of friends — had expressed confidence he would not escape their dragnet.
Police said that on Thursday night, they traced a phone call made by a 25-year-old Thai man with whom Neil was previously known to be in touch, said Col. Paisal, superintendent of the Tourist Police Division.
They found the Thai man, whom they described as a transvestite, in the northeastern province of Chaiyaphum. He admitted he knew Neil's whereabouts and on Friday morning led police to a rented house in neighboring Nakhon Ratchasima province where the Canadian was hiding, police said.
Neil acknowledged he was the man police were seeking, police said.
Neil was found after an unusual public appeal by Interpol. The France-based international police agency released reconstructed photos of a man said to be abusing Asian boys in a bid to identify a suspect, receiving hundreds of tips as a result.
"Let all international criminals and fugitives be put on notice that Interpol, its police partners in 186 member countries, the public and the Internet present new and powerful possibilities for hunting them down wherever they might try to hide," Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said in a statement.
Neil lived in Thailand from 2002 to early 2004, police said.
Thai authorities issued an arrest warrant Thursday for Neil after determining that he may have sexually abused boys in Thailand, in addition to a dozen Cambodian and Vietnamese boys, some as young as 6, whom Interpol suspects he abused.
The Thai arrest warrant was based on the testimony of one boy, who said he was lured to Neil's apartment in Bangkok by a Thai man, said police Maj. Gen. Wimol Powintara.
In that case, Neil was charged with detention of a child under 15 without parental consent, punishable by up to three years in prison; taking a child under 15 from his parents without consent, punishable by five to 20 years; and sexual abuse of a child under 15, punishable by up to 10 years.
Additional charges could lie ahead. The boy was one of three Thai youths, aged 9, 13 and 14 at the time of their abuse, who contacted police Wednesday after seeing Neil's photograph on television. They claimed he had paid them to perform oral sex on him in 2003, Wimol said.
The boys said the suspect showed them pornographic images on his computer at his apartment in Bangkok, and paid them each $16 to $32, he added.

Neil has taught at various schools in Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam since at least 2000.
He suddenly left his most recent teaching job in South Korea last week on a one-way ticket for Thailand as investigators closed in on his identity. Authorities said cameras at the immigration counter captured his image as he arrived at Bangkok's international airport.
The hunt for Neil began three years ago when German police discovered about 200 online photographs of a man sexually abusing children. His face was digitally obscured, but German police were able to reconstruct a recognizable image and Interpol circulated those pictures last week.
Before teaching in Asia, Neil had worked as a chaplain in Canada, counseling teens.
Canadian authorities have said they would seek his extradition. Canada has sex tourism laws allowing prosecution for crimes committed abroad.
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On the Net: Interpol: http://www.interpol.int

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071019/...terpol_manhunt

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