Pedophile suspect Christopher Paul Neil has been arrested in Thailand

[Flashermac]

THE NATION

21 Oct 2007

 

Police tracked Canadian from Pattaya to Korat

 

 

It took just eight days from the time wanted Canadian and alleged paedophile Christopher Paul Neil entered the country to his being detained by police.

 

He was found hiding at a Nakhon Ratchasima address with a Thai friend.

 

France-based Interpol seized more than 200 pictures posted online of the suspect sexually abusing boys in Asia, including in Cambodia and Vietnam. His face had been digitally blurred using a swirl. Experts in Germany reconstructed images of his face and released them in a worldwide appeal earlier this month.

 

A massive public response resulted in the identification of Neil, aged 32.

 

He entered Thailand on October 11 from South Korea. The manhunt in this country began.

 

Police here mobilised their immigration, tourist and children, youth and women divisions.

 

Tourist police gathered information from the street, visiting night entertainment venues in Pattaya. There they learned Neil lived with a 20-year-old transvestite called Oam, and that the pair had travelled to Oam's hometown in Chaiyaphum.

 

When police showed up, they found the couple had departed. Using telephone records for Oam's mobile phone, police tracked the two to Nakhon Ratchasima, where Oam has relatives. They were found in a rented house in Tambon Long Lawiang of Muang Nakhon Ratchasima.

 

Police arrested Neil on Friday. He has been charged with molesting children, illegal detention and other offences.

 

Oam told police he had no idea Neil was wanted by Interpol and was shocked to discover this, so they fled. He said he dated Neil for two years after they met at a Pattaya night entertainment venue.

 

They lived together in Pattaya and occasionally visited Chaiyaphum, he told police.

 

Although Neil refuses to answer police questions, their investigation has discovered he taught English in Thailand. He taught in Hong Kong and Vietnam, too, as well as South Korea, but continued to visit this country regularly.

 

Police alleged Neil's sexual behaviour was deviant and he liked to detain victims, mostly Asian boys. He often had sex with between six and seven boys at one time.

 

He has reportedly abused young girls, too.

 

His sex acts were recorded and later posted on the Internet, leading to Interpol's interest and his eventual arrest.

 

In Thailand, one boy, now believed to be aged 14, accused Neil of raping him in October of 2003, when he was nine.

 

Neil allegedly lured the boy to his Din Daeng apartment to play computer games before detaining and molesting him.

 

The boy came forward to police this week.

 

Police have determined from Neil's recordings that two other boys were allegedly molested on this occasion, but have yet to find them.

 

The father of the victim who approached police filed a complaint after finding the pictures of his son being molested on an Internet website.

 

He was shocked because his son has never mentioned the incident.

 

He now knows his son was playing computer games at a neighbourhood shop when a local man approached him, inviting him to play at Neil's residence.

 

The boy accepted but found himself locked up with a foreigner, whom he later knew as Christopher. The foreigner allegedly touched the boy's genitals and forced the boy to pose for a camera, before letting him go, the father said.

 

Police children, youth and women's division commander, Colonel Worawat Amornwiwat, said the problem of foreigners sexually abusing children was a huge issue. Police preventive measures include the exchange of criminal records between Interpol, immigration and tourist police in various countries.

 

Immigration and local police are privy to these files and are on the lookout for offenders.

 

Where suspects commit crimes, or are wanted by other countries, police will arrest them.

 

However, Worawat said, preventing children being molested was difficult because, in most cases child sex workers were the subjects and often agreed to the liaison.

 

Worawat said boys selling sex were often poor and some "wandering the streets" were as young as 11.

 

He said the law prohibiting sex with a person aged 13 and younger could be used in the case involving the known victim and Neil. It is an offence that carries jail terms ranging from seven years to life and a fine as high as Bt40,000, Worawat said. Sex with older children is prohibited, too.