Canadian former schoolteacher Christopher Neil, center, is chained as he walks to a prison bus after hearing a child molesting trial at criminal court in Bangkok, Thailand Friday, Jan. 11, 2008. Neil was arrested in Thailand in October last year on charge of sexually molesting a 9-year old boy in 2003. If found guilty, Neil will be punished up to 20 years in prison. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong) The Canadian Press
BANGKOK, Thailand - A Canadian pedophile suspect arrested last year after high-tech detective work and a global manhunt pleaded not guilty Friday to molesting underage boys in Thailand, a Thai court statement said.
Christopher Paul Neil, formerly of Vancouver, was arrested in Thailand on Oct. 19, 2007 after the France-based international police agency Interpol issued a worldwide appeal to identify and apprehend him based on some 200 Internet photos believed to show him carrying out acts of sexual abuse.
In the photos, the face of the perpetrator was digitally obscured, but German police computer experts managed to unscramble the photos so the man's face was recognizable. Interpol circulated the pictures publicly, and from the tips they received identified Neil as the suspect. The boys shown in the photos were believed to be from Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.
A statement issued by Bangkok Criminal Court, where Neil appeared Friday, said that he pleaded not guilty to charges of taking a child under 15 without parental consent with intent to molest, punishable by up to 20 years in prison; illegal detention, punishable by up to three years; and sexual abuse of a child under 15, punishable by up to 10 years.
When he was arrested, Neil was charged with sexually molesting a nine-year-old Thai boy in 2003. He was subsequently charged with sexually molesting the boy's older brother, who was 14 at the time, according to police.
Shackled at the ankles and dressed in a pale orange prison uniform, Neil was smiling Friday as he was ushered out of the courthouse with other defendants into a prison van after his hearing.
"Have a day nice day, guys," he said to reporters, but did not answer any question about the trial or the charges he faced.
The court set March 10 as the opening day for his trial. Neil evidently has not yet secured a defence lawyer; he said he would find his own, but the court said it would appoint a lawyer if he does not have one by the first hearing, according to the court statement.
Neil, a schoolteacher, lived in Thailand from 2002 to early 2004, according to police. Three Thai youths contacted police after seeing Neil's photograph on television, claiming he had paid each of them 500 baht to 1,000 baht ($16-32) to perform oral sex on him in 2003. They were aged nine, 13 and 14 at the time of their alleged abuse.
In Canada, Neil's family has said they will do everything they can to support him and have called for his extradition. Canada has sex tourism laws allowing prosecution for crimes committed overseas.
Neil's arrest ended a global manhunt that started in 2004 when the photos were discovered on the Internet of an unidentified man having sex with dozens of Asian boys, some as young as six.
After reversing the digital swirl that had obscured the suspect's face, Interpol issued its unprecedented public appeal for help in identifying him, and were soon able to trace him to Thailand.
Several countries in Southeast Asia are popular with pedophiles because of poverty that drives children and their parents to accept money for sexual favours, and because of lax law enforcement.
Christopher Paul Neil, formerly of Vancouver, was arrested in Thailand on Oct. 19, 2007 after the France-based international police agency Interpol issued a worldwide appeal to identify and apprehend him based on some 200 Internet photos believed to show him carrying out acts of sexual abuse.
In the photos, the face of the perpetrator was digitally obscured, but German police computer experts managed to unscramble the photos so the man's face was recognizable. Interpol circulated the pictures publicly, and from the tips they received identified Neil as the suspect. The boys shown in the photos were believed to be from Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.
A statement issued by Bangkok Criminal Court, where Neil appeared Friday, said that he pleaded not guilty to charges of taking a child under 15 without parental consent with intent to molest, punishable by up to 20 years in prison; illegal detention, punishable by up to three years; and sexual abuse of a child under 15, punishable by up to 10 years.
When he was arrested, Neil was charged with sexually molesting a nine-year-old Thai boy in 2003. He was subsequently charged with sexually molesting the boy's older brother, who was 14 at the time, according to police.
Shackled at the ankles and dressed in a pale orange prison uniform, Neil was smiling Friday as he was ushered out of the courthouse with other defendants into a prison van after his hearing.
"Have a day nice day, guys," he said to reporters, but did not answer any question about the trial or the charges he faced.
The court set March 10 as the opening day for his trial. Neil evidently has not yet secured a defence lawyer; he said he would find his own, but the court said it would appoint a lawyer if he does not have one by the first hearing, according to the court statement.
Neil, a schoolteacher, lived in Thailand from 2002 to early 2004, according to police. Three Thai youths contacted police after seeing Neil's photograph on television, claiming he had paid each of them 500 baht to 1,000 baht ($16-32) to perform oral sex on him in 2003. They were aged nine, 13 and 14 at the time of their alleged abuse.
In Canada, Neil's family has said they will do everything they can to support him and have called for his extradition. Canada has sex tourism laws allowing prosecution for crimes committed overseas.
Neil's arrest ended a global manhunt that started in 2004 when the photos were discovered on the Internet of an unidentified man having sex with dozens of Asian boys, some as young as six.
After reversing the digital swirl that had obscured the suspect's face, Interpol issued its unprecedented public appeal for help in identifying him, and were soon able to trace him to Thailand.
Several countries in Southeast Asia are popular with pedophiles because of poverty that drives children and their parents to accept money for sexual favours, and because of lax law enforcement.
2 comments:
This white monster should be raped by an Asian woman who is infected with HIV or AIDS or better yet, simply cut off his penis to turn him into a woman.
Give me 5 minutes alone with this guy. I will end him.
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