Where in the world is Christopher Paul Neil? Authorities believe the Canadian man who has suddenly become one of the world's most wanted is hiding out in Thailand. But wherever he is, when he's finally apprehended, he could be charged for his alleged crimes and face justice right here in Canada.
Neil is the 32-year-old the international crime fighting agency
Interpol says is the man seen having sex with several Cambodian and Vietnamese children in at least 200 disturbing and disgusting child porn pictures authorities first discovered on the Internet three years ago.
But the man's face was obscured by a "swirl pattern", put on by some photo software using a computer. Last week, experts were able to
undo that electronic disguise and put out a plea for his identity. "His face had been twisted under a digital manner and an expert working in Germany managed to untwist the face and that's the effect that you see," explains Interpol's Mick Moran. "So we got a clearer picture of the man who's seen in the images."
Late Monday, we told you how those clues led them to finally
put a name to the face, when Neil suddenly left his job as an English teacher in South Korea and turned up on an airport security camera after landing in Bangkok (top left).
An all-points-bulletin is out for him and now that Thai police have his name, passport number and other vital stats, most don't think he'll be able to avoid capture for long. And that's when this already sordid tale will move back home.
Police here expect the suspect to be extradited and returned to Canada once he's caught and any subsequent trial could be held on these shores. "Because we now have the laws in place to prosecute and because the offender has been identified as a Canadian, he'll be brought back to Canada to face the penalties here," agrees Kim Scanlan of the Toronto Police Child Exploitation Unit. Detectives have been trying to learn his name for at least three years, but it wasn't until Interpol took the rare step of making his face public that the case came together.
And whatever you may think about what Neil is accused of doing, there are others who might see him as some kind of hero. "Sometimes what we find in some of the bigger investigations or the more complicated investigations is that there's a real status among people who collect sexual abuses of children," confirms Scanlan. "It may elevate their status within certain communities."
Neil's community in Maple Ridge, B.C. isn't likely to be one of them. It's said he attended the University of British Columbia there, but left this country five years ago to teach English overseas. His family hasn't heard from him since he departed for South Korea in August. A student in the city of Gwangju says he suddenly stopped showing up for class last week and disappeared. He describes him as a well-liked instructor who also had a temper.
Now his brother is pleading for his sibling to surrender and put this behind him. "My mother is devastated and the family is in shock," 30-year-old Matthew Neil reveals, after the Mounties came asking about him. "We're co-operating with RCMP and Interpol. We're hoping this comes to a quick close."
Neighbours simply can't believe the allegations being made against the man they know. "Very shocked and surprised," confirms Rick Pennykid, the landlord of the home where the Neils live. "He was just a regular person, like nothing stood out."
But investigators are hoping his image does. His picture has been handed out to border guards across the region and there's no place he can go unobserved.
- If hunting suspected pedophiles in Thailand sounds like a headline you've read before, it is. Last year, another former English teacher who spent time in South Korea was the subject of worldwide attention when
John Mark Karr confessed to killing little JonBenet Ramsay in Colorado in 1996. But DNA evidence showed the American couldn't have committed the crime and the reasons behind his stunning admission were never clear.
To see the Imterpol release on Neil,
click here.
What do we know about the suspect?
Neil's MySpace page now filled with double meanings
Cops rely on amazing technology to catch pedophiles