Interpol “Unswirled” Child Porn Suspect Identified As Canadian
Posted October 15, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
He’s one of the world’s most wanted men but up until now no one knew who he was. That changed last week, when international crime fighting organization Interpol took a huge chance and released a picture of a man seen molesting youngsters in hundreds of disturbing child porn images.
And it turns out, he’s Canadian. Authorities in Thailand have confirmed the wanted man is 32-year-old Christopher Paul Neil. While they didn’t reveal exactly where he’s from, they do indicate his home country is Canada.
Experts were able to ‘unswirl’ the man’s face using computer photo software and released it to the world, hoping someone would attach a name to the face. And now his identity is no longer shrouded in mystery, after more than 350 tips came flooding in.
The agency thinks he’s on the run somewhere in Thailand. But wherever he is, he’s likely to still be near kids. Detectives believe he was an English teacher in South Korea, before his cover was blown by their intervention and he was forced to flee.Among the children seen in about 200 disgusting pictures he’d allegedly taken were several boys from Cambodia and Vietnam, all thought to between six years of age and their teens.
He was apparently caught on security cameras (top left) entering Thailand and a massive manhunt continues to track him down. That may be a lot easier now that officials know his name, his nationality, his birthday and even his passport number.
“Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand – all the countries in this region have all been alerted – they’re all on alert and they all have border controls in place in an effort to spot the movements of this man,” explains Interpol’s Mick Moran. He’s issued a public appeal for Neil to surrender and “have the matter sorted out in a reasonable and adult manner.”
The man in the latest photo has apparently changed his look somewhat from the original pictures believed taken at least three years ago. The one caught in Thailand shows him with much less hair and face changing glasses. But experts are sure he’s the same man and believe it may now be only a matter of time before they find him.
“We believe he is still in Thailand and we are now collecting information from neighboring countries where he committed crimes of pedophilia so we can issue an arrest warrant for him,” assures Thai police Col. Apichart Suribunya.
A former student in the South Korea city of Gwangju claims Neil attended the University of British Columbia and had been his teacher for two months, until he suddenly stopped showing up for work last Thursday. The student calls Neil a man who was generally well liked, but who occasionally showed flashes of having a temper.
Interpol is asking anyone who thinks they know where he is now to contact them through their website.
