Interpol identifies Canadian pedophile suspect

By Nopporn Wong-Anan

BANGKOK (Reuters) - After an unprecedented global appeal, Interpol identified a suspected serial pedophile being hunted across Asia on Tuesday as Christopher Paul Neil, a Canadian now believed to be in hiding in Bangkok.

Panaspong Sirawongse of Interpol in Thailand said 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 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," Panaspong told Reuters. "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 neighboring Cambodia, where police say 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.

UNSWIRLED

Detectives have been trying to track down 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.