19th October 2007ReutersCanadian paedophile suspect Christopher Neil, unmasked by nifty computer work by German police and a unique Interpol internet appeal, was arrested in rural Thailand on Friday after a week-long man-hunt.
Thai police said they had picked up the 32-year-old, accused of raping young boys in Vietnam and Cambodia several years ago, in the province of Nakhon Ratchasima, 250km northeast of Bangkok and well off the normal tourist trail.
Neil was no stranger to Thailand, having once taught in a Bangkok language school, but his hiding place was revealed by a trace on the mobile phone of his Thai boyfriend, tourist police chief Chuchart Suwannakom told Reuters.
"They went together to different provinces, probably on the run, and the last call made was from Nakhon Ratchasima," Chuchart said. "So I sent my men there."
Thai police issued a warrant for Neil's arrest on Thursday, exactly a week after he fled South Korea, following accusations by two Thai teenagers of him paying them for oral sex when they were 9 and 14, grounds for prosecution under Thai law.
Neil was to be paraded before reporters at national police headquarters in Bangkok later on Friday.
Detectives in various countries had been trying to track Neil down since German police discovered photographs on the internet three years ago of a man sexually abusing 12 boys in Vietnam and Cambodia.
His face had been scrambled with a digital swirling pattern, but German police computer experts managed to unravel the disguise and Interpol issued an unprecedented worldwide appeal through the Internet for information on who the man was.
More than 350 people came forward and Neil was identified by five sources from three different continents, Interpol said.
Neil abruptly left South Korea, where he was teaching, after Interpol broadcast his cleaned-up photograph and flew to Thailand, where he was photographed with shaved head and glasses by airport security cameras.
Thailand and its neighbours immediately alerted border posts in case he tried to sneak across a land frontier as Thai police launched a man-hunt to rival their search a year ago for JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Mark Karr.
Karr was arrested in a run-down Bangkok hostel and sent back to the United States, where he was eventually cleared of any involvement in Ramsey's murder, one of the most infamous unsolved US crimes.
Neil could face up to 20 years in jail if convicted in Thailand.
It is not know whether Canada - which can prosecute its citizens for child sex crimes committed abroad - will seek extradition.
Cambodia and Vietnam might also want to question him.
Map of Thailand. Thai police have arrested a suspected Canadian paedophile after a global manhunt launched when computer experts unscrambled digital photos allegedly showing him having sex with young boys. (AFP Graphic)
Christopher Paul Neil, a Canadian schoolteacher accused of sexually abusing boys across Southeast Asia, is escorted by Thai policemen during a press conference in Bangkok. Neil was arrested and paraded before the cameras in Thailand, ending a global manhunt sparked by a decoded digital photo.(AFP/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul) 
Christopher Paul Neil, a Canadian schoolteacher, sitting right, is shown at a police news conference next to the spokesman for the Royal Thai Police, Lt-Gen. Pongsapat Pongcharoen, sitting left, in Bangkok, Thailand Friday, Oct. 19, 2007. Neli, 32, of New Westminster, has become the world's most wanted suspected pedophile, was arrested earlier Friday in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima, where he was hiding with a Thai friend who had arranged his sexual liaisons with young boys. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)
