Interpol names Canadian paedophile suspect

After an unprecedented global appeal, Interpol yesterday identified a suspected serial paedophile being hunted across Asia as Christopher Paul Neil, a Canadian now believed to be hiding in Bangkok.

Panaspong Sirawongse of Interpol in Thailand said Mr Neil, whose digitally-swirled face in internet photos of child sex abuse was unscrambled by German police computer experts, had taught at an international school in the Thai capital in 2003-04.

He did not name the school, but said Thai immigration, crime suppression and child crime police were hunting for Mr Neil, who entered the country last week from South Korea after Interpol posted unscrambled pictures of his face on the web.

"They are also looking for children he abused and took photos with," Mr Panaspong said. "There were three boys he had abused. One boy has been identified and is being sought, two others have not been identified."

Keo Vanthan, deputy director of Interpol in neighbouring Cambodia, where police say Mr Neil was photographed sexually abusing small boys, said border authorities had been alerted in case he tried to sneak out of Thailand by land.

"We have issued an alert to all our international borders," he said.

Detectives have been trying to track down Mr Neil, who was born in 1975, since German police discovered photographs on the internet three years ago showing him raping 12 boys in Vietnam and Cambodia.

His face was disguised with a swirly digital pattern, but experts at Germany's BKA federal crime office managed to unravel the image, to reveal a white man with receding black hair.

When Interpol posted the cleaned-up picture of the suspect on its website (www.interpol.int) - the first time it has issued a direct worldwide appeal - more than 350 people came forward.

Mr Neil, who had thus far been known only by the codename "Vico", was identified by information from five sources on three different continents, the international police body said.

On Monday, it released an image of Mr Neil taken by security cameras at Bangkok airport last Thursday when he flew in from Seoul, where he had also been teaching. In the latest image, he looks significantly older and balder and is wearing glasses.